John Lichfield, an Englishman who has a weekend home in the small Normandy village of Culy-le-Patry, wrote an article about why many people in this community voted for right wing conservative Marie le-Pen who preaches hatred towards immigrants. There is virtually no crime in the village, just about everyone is white skinned and when they refer to “immigrants” it means those from England like Lichfield. So, why the anger?
One villager told him, “people here feel that everything is changing in ways they can no longer control.” Anothe person simply stated this feeling of voting for right wing candidates reflects, “a mixture of distress and nostalgia.” The old world has disappeared and a new one has emerged which displays new values and new people. Local jobs are gone and farms are disappearing so what had existed for centuries is no longer present.
In America Mitt Romney and the Tea Party harp on societal changes as ending the world that was. Actually, they refer to a world that never was–the American government played a MAJOR role in economic development, there were always immigrants, and poverty was always present. But, in their Normal Rockwell version peace, prosperity and Christianity reigned.
The same issue confronts America. Can leaders like Barack Obama explain the new world and needs of this new world? That is the modern question?
