Fascists Have The Best Uniforms

"The Front National now has the support of a quarter of Paris’s gay voters – and only 16 per cent of the straight ones."
The Front National now offers a welcoming home to gay people who feel judged by Muslims and share wider concerns about immigration and the loss of French identity... Marine has worked hard to expand the FN’s membership beyond obvious bigots, racists and skinheads. She has publicly condemned anti-Semitism and insists that, far from being racist, her party is the only one that defends secularity and democracy against Islamisation. A key part of this strategy is using the Islamist threat to court the sort of people that the far right has traditionally persecuted. It’s working.
That's not just 'working,' that's amazing. It sounds like a leading indicator.

4 comments:

MikeD said...

Frankly, it's stunning to me that most gay people I know totally support the liberal position on Islam, and will turn a blind eye to how Islam views them. They'll go on and on about Christians wanting to impose a theocracy, but just do not accept that a theocracy is exactly what Muslims are in favor of by a wide majority. At least it seems that the French are figuring it out.

Texan99 said...

". . . that the far right has traditionally persecuted"--I wonder, is that more true in Europe than here? I admit that some conservatives have tarnished their reputations on that score even in the U.S., but then so have many liberals, in different ways.

I'm pretty far right, but I won't tolerate persecution of minorities in the leaders I support, unless by persecution someone means withdrawing government support for them along with everyone else, and not giving a fig for disparate-impact arguments.

Marie le Pen sounds as if she'd gotten away from the skinhead ethos. I certainly hope it's true, because France is going to need someone like that badly.

Grim said...

Partly there's a risk of tautology, since persecution of minorities is sometimes defined as 'far right' behavior. Historically in America, the KKK has been associated with the progressive movement (in the early 20th century) and the Democratic party, though I think it's the paradigm for American 'far right' extremism.

douglas said...

'Right' and 'Left' for America and Europe are on perpendicular axes, the American axis crossing around the center relative to Europe's axis, but the European axis crosses somewhere well towards the left of America's. Europeans almost all agree on some form of socialism, they just disagree on who exactly gets it and if it's nationalist or internationalist. It's an old, but continuing argument.