Voters in France got change at the top.French voters chose Socialist Francois Hollande as their new president Sunday in a race that will have implications for Europe's debt crisis, the Afghanistan war and global diplomacy.Hollande, largely unknown outside French borders, beat out conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy, who faced widespread anger and disappointment over his handling of the economy.
Greek voters sent a message, as well.
Greece's youngest political leader Alexis Tsipras was the big beneficiary of Sunday's national election as austerity-fatigued voters catapulted his Left Coalition party towards second place.We've been hearing for a long time now, about how, for example, a Greek debt default will tank the entire European economy, and then that of the entire world, because everything is so complex and intertwined in our "globalized" economy. Well, most of Europe has long since tanked economically (made worse by "austerity" measures), and the U.S. economy, for one, is, on the whole, improving.Tsipras, 37, benefited from a stinging electoral rejection of conservative New Democracy and socialist PASOK, the two parties that dominated Greek politics since the fall of the junta in 1974.
I have no problem whatsoever, with voters taking a stand against austerity (for their poor and middle-classes, that is) in these countries. In fact, the only reason that I'm not more or less perplexed, that the results weren't far more one-sided, is a lifetime of having seen how readily large chunks of the electorate (they're called "conservatives") can be deceived and manipulated, here in the U.S.
Still, if you actually pay attention to such things, prepare for a deluge of commentary from "experts" in corporate media, about how these results mean economic calamity for the whole wide world, and doom for President Obama's reelection chances. They're mostly righties, anyway, and besides, they have to say and write that idiot drivel, or their employers will find others that will, to take their places.