• French President says will not seek second presidential mandate
    10 replies, posted
[quote]French President Francois Hollande said on Thursday he would not seek a second term in office in the presidential election in 2017, an unprecedented move that leaves the way open for other left-wing candidates. It is the first time in decades that an incumbent French president has not sought re-election. Hollande is the most unpopular president on record. "I am aware today of the risk that going down a route that would not gather sufficient support would entail, so I have decided not to be a candidate in the presidential election," a sombre-looking Hollande said in a televised address. All recent polls have predicted that neither Hollande nor any other Socialist candidate would make it past the first round of the election. They predict a run-off battle between centre-right candidate Francois Fillon and the leader of the far-right National Front, Marine Le Pen. The Left is deeply divided as it approaches the election. Several other Socialists, including former economy minister Arnaud Montebourg, have said they will take part in the party's primaries in January. Another of Hollande's ex-ministers, Emmanuel Macron, and leftist firebrand Jean-Luc Melenchon have said they will run in the presidential election but without taking part in the primaries. There has been tension between Hollande and his prime minister Manuel Valls, who raised the possibility in a weekend interview that he might run in the primaries against his boss. Hollande beat conservative incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy in an election in May 2012 after a classic leftwing campaign in which he targeted big business and pledged to raise taxes for high earners. But his popularity soon began to decline with a perceived lack of leadership and flip-flops on key issues, particularly tax reform, which dismayed many on the left. His popularity has been undermined by stubbornly high unemployment and anaemic economic growth.[/quote] [url]http://www.cnbc.com/2016/12/01/frances-hollande-says-will-not-seek-second-presidential-mandate.html[/url]
[quote]The Left is deeply divided as it approaches the election. Several other Socialists, including former economy minister Arnaud Montebourg, have said they will take part in the party's primaries in January.[/quote] I just find it funny how the side of politics that is all about collectivism is, ironically, the most-divided side of politics. You see it everywhere; the Labor party here is divided, there are at least two other competing socialist groups in Australia too, the UK Labour party is deeply divided, the left in continental European democracies is also divided, and Monty Python even made a joke about it decades ago in the Life of Brian.
The biggest threat to leftist politics is leftist politics.
[QUOTE=Lambeth;51459361]The biggest threat to leftist politics is leftist politics.[/QUOTE] Same shit applies to the right tbh tho. It's just that at one time one might be suffering it more than another like hell they got brexit because the tories made the referendum a promise to help sway UKIP voters from making them lose
[QUOTE=thelurker1234;51459370]Same shit applies to the right tbh tho. It's just that at one time one might be suffering it more than another like hell they got brexit because the tories made the referendum a promise to help sway UKIP voters from making them lose[/QUOTE] It's not even close though with the right typically being more reactionary. The left is the ideological equivalent to the middle-east, I say that as a socialist.
[QUOTE=thelurker1234;51459370]Same shit applies to the right tbh tho. It's just that at one time one might be suffering it more than another like hell they got brexit because the tories made the referendum a promise to help sway UKIP voters from making them lose[/QUOTE] This is so untrue. The left is very, very idealistic. There isn't much ideology at all on the right, save for a quickly dying brand of Christian conservatism. Reactionary politics brings the right together. And your Brexit example doesn't hold water either. "The Tories" didn't call the referendum. Cameron did, and he wasn't fully supported as we saw.
[QUOTE=BF;51459166]I just find it funny how the side of politics that is all about collectivism is, ironically, the most-divided side of politics. You see it everywhere; the Labor party here is divided, there are at least two other competing socialist groups in Australia too, the UK Labour party is deeply divided, the left in continental European democracies is also divided, and Monty Python even made a joke about it decades ago in the Life of Brian.[/QUOTE] Because typically those who espouse collectivism are the same ones who desire absolute power over that collective.
[QUOTE=BF;51459166]I just find it funny how the side of politics that is all about collectivism is, ironically, the most-divided side of politics. You see it everywhere; the Labor party here is divided, there are at least two other competing socialist groups in Australia too, the UK Labour party is deeply divided, the left in continental European democracies is also divided, and Monty Python even made a joke about it decades ago in the Life of Brian.[/QUOTE] It's really not a partisan issue as much as the political spectrum just not being one-dimensional. For example here in Germany, we have collectivist parties near the ends of the spectrum (meaning nationalists on one end and communists on the other), where the more moderate parties all emphasise individuality to some extent. As a whole, I'd say in Germany the political right (in parliament) is more collectivist since even its moderate part is mostly made up of a fairly conservative explicitly Christian union that tends to oppose reforms towards more cultural freedom (e.g. same-sex marriage, which isn't really a thing here).
[QUOTE=thelurker1234;51459370]Same shit applies to the right tbh tho. It's just that at one time one might be suffering it more than another like hell they got brexit because the tories made the referendum a promise to help sway UKIP voters from making them lose[/QUOTE] The right (at least concerning GOP) got corrupted and forgot its libertarian principles. The left's ideas are designed to have problems arise when implemented.
[QUOTE=Guriosity;51462005] The left's ideas are designed to have problems arise when implemented.[/QUOTE] Care to explain this?
[QUOTE=Guriosity;51462005]The right (at least concerning GOP) got corrupted and forgot its libertarian principles. The left's ideas are designed to have problems arise when implemented.[/QUOTE] Okay, so I will take that it was incorrect of me to say that they're equally divided. But you're just ignoring a whole lotta history, such as Bush's tax cuts and Reaganomics (supply-side was straight out of libertarian economic ideas) for recent examples. And, problems always exist and often the right can wind up downright ignoring them. Such as global warming, or LGBT rights in the wake of scientific evidence stating that hey, these people are valid and unchangeable. Before I would just say that their restrictions are heavy-handed, but now they're indefensible. [sp]bonus points if you don't take the libertarian cop out of claiming that the right wing policies you like are true capitalism and the ones you don't like are crony capitalism[/sp]
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