I live part of the year in Provence and one day I was reading Le Monde and a headline about a “sexy politician” caught my eye.
“Well, those are two words you don’t see together very often,” I thought. So I read the article and found out that there had been a poll asking French women, “What politician would you like to have a summer fling with?”
“Wow,” I said to myself, “they would never have a poll like that back home in the US—it’s way too sexist.” And if they did conduct such a poll, American women would take one look at our politicians, imagine a fling with them and immediately flee the country.
I showed the article to my wife Val. “Honey,” I asked sweetly, “if I was a politician and they did this poll, would you vote for me?”
She looked me up and down and said, “Don’t quit your day job.”
Another time there was an election for the European Parliament. In France, it doesn’t take much to field a slate of candidates, so there were 48 (yes, 48) different parties running. And some had very interesting names.
New Anti-Capitalist Party
Union of Struggle Against the Banks
For a Royal France at the Heart of Europe
Cannabis Without Borders
Esperanto, a Fair Common Language for All
Libertarian Program for a Europe Setting an Example Against Sexism and Precariousness
Each of these parties got equal airtime to run TV ads and they were one of the highlights of the day.
The various Green parties seemed to run the same kinds of ads, all rainbows and lollipops “We believe in a clean environment, good jobs for everyone, and puppies.”
Keith van Sickle muses on life in France