USA Politics Versus French Politics

Most mainstream European conservative parties are more progressive than the Democratic party in the US. In other words, the US Democratic party would be considered to be a very hard right party if it existed in Europe.

As for the US Republican party, it would be considered an extreme, far right fringe party in most if not all European countries, and the party would have no chance to gain elective office to any extent at all.

President Nicholas Sarkozy of France came into office in 2007 threatening substantial shrinkage of French society solidarity and humanitarian programs such as minimum parental childbirth leaves and overtime limits. A few relatively minor changes were enacted in his first year.

But in the wake of the economic emergency caused by the mega greed in the United States, the French President has become much more progressive. He declared in the fall of 2008 that "laissez faire" economics is now history, and he has pulled back from dismantling regulations and programs put into effect by French parties of the left.

Meanwhile, top US officials are gradually starting to proceed and talk in the same way that full scale third world officials do. They are starting to tout a US "economic recovery" that exists only for rich people.

But US middle income and lower income people can not now and will not be able to for God only knows how many years easily, or not so easily for that matter, get a job even if they are highly qualified to get one.

In many European countries but especially in France, only a comparatively small number of middle class jobs have been lost during the US economics crisis, and there are already indications that France could actually be adding to the total of their jobs later this year. Whereas it appears that, at a rock bottom minimum, it will take until mid 2010 before any net new jobs at all are added in the US, and very possibly longer than that.

[This was a response to this article.]