May
7
2007
The Pitchfork Campaign
Anyone who believes that the U.S. has a monopoly on bitter, partisan, electoral politics has not been paying attention to France the last couple of months. Sego — Segolene Royal, and Sarko — Nicholas Sarkozy, have been providing the television age equivalent of a Punch and Judy show in the name of representative democracy. As election day drew near, however, and the preference polls failed to turn in her direction, Segolene Royal’s campaign turned to demogoguery in an apparent effort to scare the middle class out of looking for answers on the right.