I won’t pretend to be mad at him for campaign fiance BS. He was justified to do whatever to beat the communists.
I will say though since corporations have committed themselves to anti-Americanism I’ve done a 180 (or a least a 90) on that issue though, ban corporate (and union) donations. Rich pricks can put their own name on their donations. No “dark money” either or loopholes for superpacs.
I’ve also done a 180 (or 90) on French politics, I was for Fillon but I’d be lying to myself to pretend he’s more than a little to Sarko’s right. I hope a Le Pen wins warts and all, there is no future for the European “center-right” (which is center-left or worse by our standards) than there is for Bush league RINOism.
Well to be fair, that's not really your own views "evolving" so much as it was the French political parties (cue Reagan's "I didn't leave the party, the party left me...)
Le Pen's daddy was running the "National Front" at the time Sarkozy was in power, which the media presented as a "far right" political party. Many FReepers who didn't research the media's BS took this to mean that National Front were hardcore Reagan-style conservatives. In reality, National Front in that era was a bunch of neo-NAZI loons and holocaust deniers, which not only made them NOT "conservative", but a disastrous option for France because of their odious Jew-bashing and fascist tenancies.
Since that time, Marine Le Pen has taken over the party from her daddy, done a complete "rebranding" and severed all previous neo-NAZI ties, and made them into much more of an ACTUAL conservative party.
The US equivalent might be the California affiliate of the Constitution Party (American Independent or whatever), which originally started off as the state branch of George Wallace's screwy segregation party in 1968, but purged the Dixiecrats later on and became an actual conservative party.
The media also claimed Sarkozy was the "most conservative" French President in decades (which a bunch of FReepers also accepted as face value and decided the guy was some kind of Reaganesque symbol of a conservative revolution, even though his actual policies were 95% identical to fellow faux conservative Jac Chirac). If that's their idea of "right wing", I'd hate to see what left-wing looks like over there.
Both the major "conservative" parties/leadership in Mexico and France have been non-starters for me for years, their "conservatives" are worse than our RATS.
Maybe France can end up like Mexico, where one of France's "far left" politicians actually turns out to be a VAST improvement!