Opinion | Let the Good Fight Begin: Mélenchon & the Paper Tigers
- JM Valat De Córdova
- 2 days ago
- 3 min read
(WILTON, CONNECTICUT) — Jean-Luc Mélenchon in his book "Now the people: Revolution in the 21st Century" Mélenchon argues that the 5th French republic and capitalism fails its subjects so much that it is almost an illegitimate apparatus. He stops short of calilng for armed revolution in France, but instead lays out his plains for universal human rights, and eco-socialism in the modern day. The book reads like a philosopher giving a speech, and the intonation is unique to the man's specific charisma.
This journalist, on a personal level, will likely vote for him in the 2027 French Presidential elections. It should be noted that the book doesn't even attempt to claim he is not a populist, (from the english translation) Mélenchon declares "Am I a populist? Yes". This sharply deviates from the norm and the current President of France, the technocratic center-right liberal Emanuel Macron.
Tan Yeat Tim, The Radical Time's Editor for Southeast Asian Affairs, wrote a piece on Mélenchon's leftist populist party La France Insoumise and the potential of another Nouvelle Front Populaire, and discusses at length about whether LFI should be embraced or not in this popular front against the centrists and the fascist and fascistic adjacent Rassemblement National.
There is at this moment a battle between the center, left, and right over whether France should, like the United Kingdom before in in the 80s, become the next America-lite. We, as citizens of the republic must resist the farcical nature of American capital. America is today the face of ultranationalistic socially conservative corporatism. Another word for this may be fascism.
Even if there were no alligator auschwitz, if no protestors were killed in broad daylight, and the rule of law existed. Capitalism would still be an alienating force that deprived us of leisure, freedom, and dignity. As argued previously by myself, there is only one future that includes humanity, and that future includes the transitional socialist state argued for by Marx and other political philosophers.
Mélenchon, when he announced his campaign for the presidency mirrored Mao and called the United States of America "paper tigers". He was right, and remains correct to this day. America will crumble and it will do so rapidly with our ultranationalistic buffons at the ehad of state and governance. America will fall in its might and influence, must fall, and should fall soon. When this happens, Europe and a European Union led by moral authorities such as Mélenchon should be the new centers for liberal democracy and ecology in the modern era.
Mélenchon has an uphill battle to face in these coming elections. Polls show him garnering only 26% of the vote against the fascistic turtleneck wearer Jordan Bardella. While there remains a year until the elections, it is neccesary, proper, and just for Mélenchon to lead France into this brave new world. A world where America no longer even claims to care of freedom.
A world with a crumpled paper, before in the form of a tiger. In this world, a united Europe and a socialist Europe is the world's only hope towards a brighter day. Without Europe, without the old America, there will no longer be a chance for democracy. The rights of men and women will erode, and we will find ourselves in a neo-vicotorianesque age.
