Shortest Of Honeymoons

by Mark Steyn - May 7th, 2007 The New York Sun

[This article is Mark Steyn's prediction that the election of Nikolas Sargozy is not going to change the French desire for socialism.]

In my recent book, whose title escapes me, I cite one of those small anecdotes that seems almost too perfect a distillation of Continental politics. It was a news item from 2005: A fellow in Marseilles was charged with fraud because he lived with the dead body of his mother for five years in order to continue receiving her pension of 700 euros a month.

She was 94 when she croaked, so she'd presumably been enjoying the old government check for a good three decades or so, but her son figured he might as well keep the money rolling in until her second century and, with her corpse tucked away under a pile of rubbish in the living room, the female telephone voice he put on for the benefit of the social services office was apparently convincing enough. As the Reuters headline put it: "Frenchman Lived With Dead Mother To Keep Pension."

Think of France as that flat in Marseilles, and its economy as the dead mother, and the country's many state benefits as monsieur's deceased mom's benefits. To the outside observer, the French give the impression they can live with the stench of death as long as the government benefits keep coming.

Steyn is talking about France. Yet if George Bush can successfully tout his socialism based "compassionate conservative" philosophy while representing the conservative party, how long will it be before America is as stagnant and weak as France? Who would have thought that the Republican Party would become socialism light? On the other hand, all signs are that most Republicans are sorry for the diversion into the welfare state and are ready to come back to libertarian-conservatism, the philosophy of Ronald Reagan.

Steyn in this article is very negative on France despite the election of Sargozy. Steyn predicts that France will never actually take actions to re-invigorate their economy. At least for now, I choose to have more optimism. I think the election of Sargozy is a good sign and in line with the return to sanity of the Republican Party.