If you sometimes check out my Google Shared Items links or page, then you’ll have noticed that I often link to articles about religious and political extremism in the US. I’m thinking of articles such as this one that I urge you to read.
Doing this might seem like typical liberal blogging to Americans, but it’s not.
The fact is, the entire political spectrum in France seems to be to the left of the entire political spectrum in the US. In other words, the French right is often to the left of American Democrats. And in many respects, the conservative right in the US is on many issues well to the right of our extreme-right Front National party in France.
When Le Pen of the Front National was runner-up in the first round of the French presidential elections in 2002 (with about 17% of the vote), he was trounced, 82,5 to 17,5 in the second round: the left and the moderate right voted for the « républicain » candidate Chirac.
In contrast, Bush and his neo-conservative buddies were elected twice, even though again, on many issues, they make Le Pen seem like a moderate, and the French right seem like commie pinko nut-jobs.
In France, the death penalty was abolished in 1981 and the abolition was written into the constitution this year. Nobody seriously recommends abstinence as a way of fighting AIDS, STDs or teenage pregnancy. Abortion is legal, and no organized party is challenging it. Contraception is fine, without parental consent. The morning-after pill is free for anyone. Religion, or lack thereof, is essentially a private matter. Nobody seriously believes in the imminent second coming of Christ, in creationism or intelligent design, that the world is only a few thousand years old, that the sun orbits the Earth, that global warming is a fiction, or a purely natural phenomenon that isn’t man-made. Sex is natural. Nudity is not obscene. You can swear on prime-time broadcast TV and radio.
A lot of the ideas that are promoted on American conservative TV & radio, would never be uttered in the French media. It’s so far off the charts, it is such lunatic fringe material, that it would just seem like a waste of everybody’s time. Some of it would probably be illegal, under laws that forbid hate-mongering.
For example (all quotes from the aforementioned article):
Listen to RANDALL TERRY, former head of Operation Rescue: « Our goal is a Christian nation. We have a Biblical duty, we are called by God, to conquer this country. We don’t want equal time. We don’t want pluralism. » And of course, his classic, « I want you to just let a wave of intolerance…a wave of hatred wash over you. Yes, hate is good…. »
A lot of the « mainstream » issues that are hotly debated in the US, were settled decades, if not centuries ago in France. So when I link to this stuff, I don’t feel like I’m participating or taking sides in the conservative vs. liberal US debate on these issues. It’s like I’m pinching myself to see if I’m awake or having a nightmare. I’m expressing my utter amazement and terror that most of these issues are actually up for any debate at all.
The amazement and terror that I feel is probably how many Americans feel when they hear about those crazy, « backwards », « fanatical » islamic states in the Middle-East, you know, where they want to impose the Koran on everyone, just like the American religious conservatives want to impose the bible and christianity on everyone:
If Terry is too marginal to count, then hearken unto JERRY FALWELL: « The idea that religion and politics don’t mix was invented by the devil to keep Christians from running their own country. » And « If you’re not a born-again Christian, you’re a failure as a human being. »
or
PAT ROBERTSON: « The great builders of our nation almost to a man have been Christians, because Christians have the desire to build something. …The people who have come into (our) institutions (today) are primarily termites who are into destroying institutions that have been built by Christians…The termites are in charge now…and the time has arrived for a godly fumigation. »
or
In 1988, then-presidential candidate George H.W. Bush said atheists cannot play a contributing role in American society and that it’s impossible for an atheist to be a patriot (because this nation was formed under God).
Never mind that papa Bush denies the patriotism of many of the Founding Fathers. Positions such as these don’t even register anywhere on the political spectrum in France. Nobody, left or right, would gratify proponents of such ideas with the time of day. In the US, these proponents are in power, much to the dismay of a minority of other Americans, and to the utter indifference of half of the US population that doesn’t bother to vote.
Simply put, when I observe the combination of America’s unbelievable level of obscurantism and messianism and hubris, its utter cluelessness and ignorance about the rest of the world, and its huge political, military and economic might, I’m grateful I live in France. But I’m also scared shitless. More so than when I was growing up on a virtual US-Soviet nuclear battleground.
If only the American « left » would lean more to the left, they might become as left-leaning as the French right, and start nudging America in the right direction on the obscurantism / Enlightenment scale, or at least slow down the slide in the opposite direction (which was already well under way when I was living in the US during the Reagan/Bush Sr. era).
Until that starts happening, assuming it ever does, I’ll probably keep linking to these frightening tidbits, as a tiny contribution to the effort of trying to keep the lights on.