“Full Yellow Jacket” — I like it — here is Robert Miller:
French President Emmanuel Macron’s concessions to Paris protestors signaled the first surrender of the West’s internationalist establishment to populist demands. Macron’s concessions are all the more important because they are the first major internationalist concession to come while that establishment holds power. Enthusiastically supported by the Left, and a growing concern for the sane cohort of citizens in multiple countries, the heralded demise of Western sovereignty is premature.
Few may have a full grasp of the implications of what has unfolded in France, but our French cousins are signaling that a worldwide political movement is afoot in the West. This is a movement that goes deeper than electoral politics as it plumbs the question of whether the West will remain comprised of sovereign states.
Common Philosophies
The history of Franco-American relations presents a mix of deep philosophical connectivity peppered with bilateral cultural ridicule. America’s separation of powers as the structural and political manifestation of liberty, owes much of its inspiration to Montesquieu’s 1748 book, The Spirit of the Laws. Since French troops under Comte de Rochambeau helped secure the British surrender at Yorktown in 1781, the two republics have shared the same side in fights against Nazism and Communism. Against the threat of terrorism, al-Qaeda attacks against France in the 1990s served as a dress rehearsal for what was to come later.
Amid the comity of political philosophy the Franco-American relationship has also witnessed American fascination with “freedom fries” after Paris’s refusal to join the 2003 Iraq War, and French consternation over the success and popularity of American wine. Cultural issues aside, both countries have reprised their roles in the Western project of sovereignty and citizenship, with each doing it their own way.
Common Philosophies
The history of Franco-American relations presents a mix of deep philosophical connectivity peppered with bilateral cultural ridicule. America’s separation of powers as the structural and political manifestation of liberty, owes much of its inspiration to Montesquieu’s 1748 book, The Spirit of the Laws. Since French troops under Comte de Rochambeau helped secure the British surrender at Yorktown in 1781, the two republics have shared the same side in fights against Nazism and Communism. Against the threat of terrorism, al-Qaeda attacks against France in the 1990s served as a dress rehearsal for what was to come later.
Amid the comity of political philosophy the Franco-American relationship has also witnessed American fascination with “freedom fries” after Paris’s refusal to join the 2003 Iraq War, and French consternation over the success and popularity of American wine. Cultural issues aside, both countries have reprised their roles in the Western project of sovereignty and citizenship, with each doing it their own way.
The juxtaposition of presidents Donald Trump and Emmanuel Macron is stark to the point of parody, and is well within the Franco-American tradition of mutual republicanism and ridicule.
Read more: American Greatness
Image credit: www.amgreatness.com.
