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Mainstream conservative writes approvingly about Le Pen
An index of how much the world is changing—but not changing nearly enough—is that Cal Thomas, a respectable mainstream conservative columnist, and very much a liberal on racial issues, interviewed the French National Front leader Jean-Marie Le Pen at his home and wrote it up for his syndicated column. You would expect such a column, which would have been inconceivable before 9/11, to be exciting stuff. Unfortunately it is a bit dull. Half of it consists of complaints about the politically correct silencing of Le Pen by the French establishment. Please, we know this—tell us something we don’t know, something useful. Also, Pen’s own positions, at least as summarized by Thomas, are less than scintillating. We know he wants to stop further immigration. But what does he propose doing about the eight million Muslims already in France? Unbelievably, the column doesn’t even touch on that topic. I’m sure Le Pen had more interesting things to say to Thomas than are reflected in this piece. However, the bright side remains Thomas’s stunning departure from convention, first, in that he published the piece at all, and second, in that he did not even mention the charges of anti-Semitism against Le Pen, an issue that is ordinarily put front and center in every single article about him. As I have argued here, Le Pen’s anti-Semitism is a matter of occasional verbal offenses against Jewish sensibilities, which, as obnoxious as they may be, play no discernible role in his policies and agenda. In fact, the leadership of Le Pen or someone like him would greatly benefit Jews by lessening Muslim power in Europe.
In any case, Thomas is to be congratulated for breaking the PC mold. Now, if he would only write a follow-up column going into more depth on Le Pen’s actual positions. Email entry |