Exit polls reported by Reuters and Pajamas Media are both showing the beginning of the end for Silvio Berlusconi’s center-right hodge-podge in Italy. The election of Romano Prodi’s center-left hodge-podge (from Roman Catholics to communists) had been predicted and seems to be coming true.
MEANWHILE in la douce France: Frère Jacques has acceded to the wishes of the étudiants (of something) and union leaders and rescinded the new labor law encouraging businesses to hire youths by allowing those same businesses to fire those who don’t work out. Current youth unemployment stands at a disastrous 22%. The rates for non-white youth from the suburbs – the other rioters of late – are pushing fifty percent. But this one was clearly a white “bohemian” student rebellion – and they won. Democracy works in strange ways, non?
UPDATE: Things are looking slightly better for Berlusconi.
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12 Comments
1. David Thomson:ìDemocracy works in strange ways, non?î
The voters ultimately get what they so desire. Is it always the intelligent choice? Nope, there is no guarantee of infallibility. The Old Europeans are quickly going to hell in a hand basket. Franceís best and brightest will continue leaving the country. The Catholic Church in Italy (as it also is in the United States), for all practical purposes, is something of a socialist organization. It has a lot in common with the Communists.
I have been far too nonchalant and indifferent about Old Europeís decline. Claire Berlinski is right to point out that in the long run—this is not good for the United States. Their problems, whether we like it or not, also impact negatively on us.
Apr 10, 2006 - 7:59 am 2. ElMondo:What’s that old saying? “The people get the government they deserve”, or something like that?
Apr 10, 2006 - 8:34 am 3. Kevin Peters:Roger:
We won, we saved our employment rights, we stopped the government, we own the streets!!!!!!! We get to keep the system that keeps us on the dole, we won’t get any jobs, our unemployment rate will stay at 22%, we get to protest again in 1 year over the fact that we are depressed because we can’t get a job, we get to rationalize burning cars because we have a high unemployment rate, we get to continue the fight to keep the status qou and then protest that the status qou is not working. We are the new rhetorical schizophrenics, revolutionists and reactioniary at the same time. We won!!! Strange victory.
Apr 10, 2006 - 8:52 am 4. jaafar:Gosh, we’re suddenly believing in exit polls again?
After all, 2004 was SO LONG AGO! :-0
Apr 10, 2006 - 8:57 am 5. beautifulatrocities:I recently met an Italian, a grad student here at Berkeley. He was intelligent & educated, & of course against the Iraq War & George Bush, etc. So I asked him a few questions, & it was clear that not only did he know nothing about Gulf Wars I or II, Oil for Fraud, Hussein’s Iraq, etc, he had never even given it any thought. He just came from Europe where the media feeds up a monolithic, pro-Arab p.o.v., & he swallowed it whole.
The funny thing is, he thought he was VERY informed, yet he was incapable of constructing a coherent argument without resorting to red herrings or changing the subject, because he’d never heard such views challenged anywhere.
Apr 10, 2006 - 9:24 am 6. syn:More importanly, how much of an effect will this form of mob rule have over our own Democracy? Will ANSWER/World Workers Party’s communist influence strike a fatal blow to free market capitalist America by staging rallies using emotional blackmail to sway public opinion?
The progressive left couldn’t kill us with their anti-war theatrics but they may have a chance using millions of illegal aliens as the sword to carry out their attack. The Left has already established among the minds of the mob that ‘illegal is legal regardless of the law’, Republicans are racist bigots who hate brown people, and the Catholic Church can be used to advocate the Left’s political agenda (where are advocates for separation of Church and State? Oh I forgot, they’re the ones organizing the rallies).
Apr 10, 2006 - 9:26 am 7. lindenen:France isn’t a democracy. Democracies are more than rule by the latest mob gathered on the street.
Apr 10, 2006 - 9:59 am 8. flenser:Say what you will about the French, but at least when they cave in to mobs of demonstrators, they cave in to mobs of their own citizens.
Apr 10, 2006 - 10:26 am 9. Godzilla:The events surrounding the French jobs law and the riots seem straight out of an Ayn Rand novel. Now would be the time that the employers start walking off the job. “Here are the keys, have a blast. We’re gone.”
Apr 10, 2006 - 10:42 am 10. jaafar:Oh, that comment about Ayn Rand is eerie.
But that’s the developing situation, isn’t it? “Employers” risk everything, and “employees” risk nothing. The situation in France is scary indeed, with the manicured rich boys “rioting” for their “right” to lifetime employment.
Apr 10, 2006 - 1:16 pm 11. dclydew:“Now would be the time that the employers start walking off the job. “Here are the keys, have a blast. We’re gone.”"
Heh, nice comment Godzilla.
Interesting isn’t it? A thousand years ago, the employer was put in place by God and the employed were peasents. With the advent of the Industrial Age, the employed took the stance you mentioned and suddenly got treated like humans (or at least less like serfs).
And now, the employers seem to have fallen towards serfdom (compliance with myrriads of rules and regulations that have nothing to do with the useful operation of business) while the employed have begun to trend toward insane demands.
Wouldn’t it be neat if humans treated each other like humans… I recall that one fellow recommended that and got nailed to some timber for his trouble… with all the people that claim to follw his ideas, you’d think we’d get somewhere further than this mess.
Apr 10, 2006 - 2:18 pm 12. Pooh:Roger L Simon writes:
“and Bonjour Tristesse for Dominique”
Oh-la-la! Monsieur Roger, he show his advancing years. But yes, this novel c’est vraiment bon. 1953 it was a year magnifique: The Etas-Unis she develop hydrogen bomb; Joseph Stalin pop his clogs as we say in France; Jonas Salk announce his polio vaccine bringing the world one step closer to total domination by les juifs; most importantly, Francoise Sagan write Bonjour Tristesse.
You can buy it here:
Bonjour Tristesse at Amazon
Apr 10, 2006 - 4:31 pm