The easiest lowest effort way to defeat fascism is just by showing up and putting an X in the right box. The other alternatives are much much harder - that’s why the far right puts so much effort into demoralising the opposition and suppressing the vote. They’re freaking terrified of democracy.
Fun fact! We don't have Xs nor boxes. In France, parties have to print their own ballots and deliver them to polling locations. We put the one we want in a little envelope and the rest to the garbage (where they belong)
Indeed, I think the hard left were excluded. Sensible moderates and social democrats working together to make a decent future is never going to be sexy, never going to win Bluesky approval.
Kids - It’s called compromise, it’s difficult, it’s hard work, and you’ll learn about it when you’re over 25
Ryan, have you actually been following any of this closely? the NFP - a coalition that, as Siobhán mentions, includes the socialists and communists - is the one that's been doing the hard work, with the "sensible moderates" only grudgingly joining up once they saw how bad Macron had played it.
The Socialists haven’t been hard left in France since before Mitterand was elected.
The communists know they only have influence in a left alliance & unlike the DSA crowd in the US behave accordingly
That was Macron's lot, though - the alliance that got the most votes is left to hard left, and it does appear they did the heavy lifting in the election.
“Macron’s lot” stood down over 80 candidates didn’t they? Between them and the leftist block,
working together, they have beaten the fascist threat. Let’s savour that for a moment before we get back to haggling over what happens next.
The left coalition allied with centrists, pulling out third-ranked candidates to avoid splitting the vote against the fascists. If they hadn't done this, the fascists might have a majority. So the lesson seems to be that the best way to defeat fascism is for leftists and centrists to work together.
isn't that oversimplifying it a bit? didn't the left (and center, but less so) strategically have candidates drop out to thin the field and avoid splitting the vote?
A strong left (agreed) that can usefully campaign and govern in coalition with the center-left and center if it’s not in a position to win on its own (also important!) even understanding that the centrists may not be trustworthy allies.
> said that wifi "should not be exposed to children's brains" with zero actual reasoning or scientific evidence
> running cover for the invasion of Ukraine by Russia ("provoked by 'expansion of NATO'")
>Saying she would want Snowden in her Cabinet
Wait... the lady that had dinner with Putin, then asked for money for a vote recount, didn't do the recount, and then didn't give back the money? That lady? Uh, no. No thank you. At least Nader had the decency to not come back as a candidate.
