The Message from France

I have never been one to bash the French. I like their wine, I like their cheese, and these days, I am starting to like their politics.

With the election of Nicolas Sarkozy, the French are starting to drop all the Socialist baggage that has bedeviled their economy for decades. And if you consider the victory of German Chancellor Angela Merkel last year and the likely strong showing for the Tories in the next election in Great Britain, it seems that the center-right in Europe is on a roll.

Sarkozy ran as a tax cutter, a spending cutter and a hard-liner on illegal immigration. If those ideas are popular in France, surely they should be popular here in the United States.

And both Sarkozy and Merkel are seen as friends of the United States. Maybe we aren’t as unpopular in Europe as the Democrats say we are.

The bottom line is that the Socialist movement in Europe is in serious trouble. Let us hope that the voters in the United States learn the lessons that took the Europeans decades to learn. Socialism, like that preached by “progressive Democrats,” ought to be relegated to the trash heap of history.

Here are the lessons that should be learned by every American.

First, more government spending is usually not helpful to promoting freedom and economic growth.

Second, more government regulation, such as a government-mandated 30-hour workweek, may sound good in theory but leads to high unemployment.

Third, having a rational immigration policy is important. If you think we have immigration problems here in America, you ought to talk to the French!

Sarkozy is in for a tough fight in France. Labor will protest and some of the protests will be violent. Illegal immigrants will protest and some of those protests will get bloody. Students will demonstrate and all hell will break loose in Paris. But Sarkozy is on the right side of history. He will make changes that need to be made. Let us hope that he is successful.