Austerity Sucks

The runoff presidential election in France this past Sunday, in which conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy was ousted favor of Socialist candidate François Hollande, is significant for one reason and one reason alone.

France no longer has a hot First Lady.

But, apart from Carla Bruni, it also means that the voters of France and the rest of Europe are fed up with conservative-backed spending cuts and belt-tightening in the middle of the worst European recession since World War II and the biggest crisis the Eurozone has faced in its short history.  In Great Britain, Conservative candidates have lost local election in a rebuke of Prime Minister David Cameron's budget cuts, and the Greek parliamentary elections have failed to produce a majority for any party, necessitating a coalition government in a country where no one can seem to get along.

In France, Hollande has promised to tax the rich to pay for the sort of generous social programs the French have taken for granted and Americans are envious of.  But Hollande may have promised too much, as the international finance markets may have a few problems with his proposals, which never did go beyond taxing the upper-class folks whom Hollande famously detests.  And he'll have to deal with the misgivings of German chancellor Angela Merkel, who insists on auterity measures as the best and only way to get the Eurozone out of the crisis.  Merkel can pontificate very easily on the subject, as Germany made the necessary corrections to its economy long before the 2008 financial crisis that crippled the industrialized countries.   

All of this should be kept in mind by American progressives who believe that the deep social spending cuts proposed by reactionaries like Paul Ryan will find little support among U.S. voters. First of all, President Obama's spending policies, which led to the Tea Party revolt of 2010, aren't exactly enjoying renewed support, thanks to the persistently sluggish economy.  Secondly, many Americans, particularly Republicans, don't see increased social spending as promoting fairness and justice.  Quite the opposite: many Americans see it as a nefarious plot to make people more dependent on government, ruin their sense of self-reliance, and weaken our strong moral character (the same strong moral character that has allowed us to let poverty run rampant in our cities and let millions of people go without health insurance).  Obama, like Sarkozy, is in just as much trouble in his bid for re-election because he's the incumbent.  But he might still survive because, unlike Sarkozy - and unlike Mitt Romney - he connects to people, he has a sense of what the masses are going through, and he can relate to them.  

But in a tight election - even a tight election in which the Republican challenger brags about his stupendous wealth in a time of high unemployment - will that be enough?

At least Obama has a hot wife.  And she's as personable as he is. :-)