POLLS BEING WHAT THEY ARE, Republicans and their supporters must be feeling a bit like the condemned Frenchmen who rode to the guillotine during the Reign of Terror.
asserted
who → feel → Terror
It’s fitting, then, that they are seizing on unrest in France as a desperate campaign gambit.
asserted
they → ’ → gambit
“The Riots in France Are a Warning for America,” declared the Federalist.
asserted
Federalist → declare → America
“Mass immigration will split your country in two, and the two sides will eventually go to war.”
asserted
sides → split → war
Rep. Keith Self, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Europe, had the script down pat:
asserted
Self → have → script
They’ve been allowing this to happen for years and years, so they are reaping what they sowed.
asserted
they → allow → what
We’re also trying to get a handle on our mass migration consequences, just like France should have done years ago.
asserted
France → try → consequences
That’s why I say this is a lesson to America.
asserted
this → ’ → America
We are watching the future of America in France and the U.K., frankly.
asserted
We → watch → France
So did Speaker Mike Johnson:
France is descending into chaos because they wanted OPEN BORDERS—just like the socialist Democrats in America.
asserted
they → descend → America
What we are witnessing is a chilling warning for all Americans of what happens if the radical Marxist insurgent left gets their way.
asserted
left → witness → way
JD Vance warned: “This is the future congressional Democrats seek for your country.”
asserted
Democrats → warn → country
Naturally, Trump picked up the baton, telling reporters that the French protests were about “immigration, not schools,” and posting:
France is burning!
asserted
France → pick → immigration
The immigration of people from an entirely different world, people with hatred in their hearts, has shattered that once great country.
asserted
immigration → shatter → country
Close your Borders and take control, before it is too late!
asserted
it → close → control
Back in reality, there is no evidence that the French protests and riots have anything at all to do with immigration.
asserted
protests → be → immigration
There has been Islamist violence in France over the years, perpetrated by immigrants or children of immigrants, perhaps most famously the attacks on the Paris offices of the magazine Charlie Hebdo and the Bataclan theater in 2015 and the horrific Nice truck attack the following year that killed 86.
asserted
that → perpetrate → 86
But that’s not what’s happening today, and no desperate eagerness by American Republicans to hijack these protests for their flailing campaigns can change that.
asserted
eagerness → ’ → that
There is no data on the ethnicity or color of the thousands of people arrested in the past week—France doesn’t keep such records.
asserted
France → be → records
Students in the Paris suburbs were protesting for weeks before the violence started.
asserted
violence → protest → weeks
Similar protests have spread to Lyon, Marseille, Lille, Bordeaux, and many other smaller cities and rural areas—and so has the violence.
asserted
violence → spread → Lyon
What originated with students protesting poorly equipped high schools expanded to farmers and labor unions.
asserted
originated → originate → farmers
Some of the rioters are dissolute young men who were itching to pick a fight with the police, but the original demonstrators were students complaining about the long-running underfunding of French schools.
asserted
demonstrators → itch → schools
Others who joined are furious about the price of gasoline and diesel, and the high cost of living in general.
asserted
who → join → general
So a more likely cause of the unrest in France isn’t immigration, but President Trump’s half-baked decision to attack Iran without buy-in from Congress.
asserted
cause → attack → Congress
In fact, the high cost of fuel and associated inflation is causing unrest in other European countries including Italy, Portugal, Belgium, and Albania.
asserted
cost → associate → Italy
(The Albanians were already displeased by a corruption scandal linked to a resort development project by Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump.)
asserted
Albanians → displease → Kushner
THE PROTESTS IN FRANCE do bear a lesson for the United States, but it’s not the one the GOP prefers.
asserted
GOP → bear → States
France has a weakness for à la barricade.
asserted
France → have → barricade
Princeton’s David A. Bell quotes an old saying: “While the United States has three branches of government, France has four: the executive, the legislative, the judiciary, and the street.”
asserted
France → quote → four
In 2018, the country was nearly paralyzed by the gilets jaunes (yellow vests) protests over fuel taxes.
asserted
country → paralyze → taxes
They have an end-of-an-era feel.
asserted
They → have → feel
People are demanding better services and lower prices but are unwilling to make the trade-offs those things demand.
asserted
things → demand → offs
France has been a poor place to start a business for decades.
asserted
France → start → decades
A 2012 “millionaire’s tax” failed and was abandoned.
asserted
tax → fail → ?
Efforts to deal with the crushing burden of pensions for the elderly—for example, Emmanuel Macron’s push to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64—have been met with fierce resistance.
asserted
Efforts → deal → resistance
France has been borrowing to cover its costs, but the bond markets are having their say, charging France more to borrow than Italy or Greece.
asserted
markets → borrow → Italy
France now spends more to service its debt than it spends on defense or education.
asserted
it → spend → defense
And because America is stepping back from global leadership, the demands on France’s budget for defense will only increase.
asserted
demands → step → defense
Lenders take account not just of a country’s debt-to-GDP ratio, but also its political stability and likelihood to repay its debts.
asserted
Lenders → take → debts
…and 17 more, not listed.
The Aporia
