Let’s be perfectly honest here but men have a way of
getting turned on by the most peculiar of things. One of those peculiarities is
what you’d call a “bad girl” or the type of girl who you know is bad for you
but somehow there’s something very appealing about her. This attraction was best
expressed by the 2000 movie Bedazzled, staring Elizabeth Hurley as the Devil.
Instead of giving us the usual “fearful” and “gruesome”
devil that has been part of mythology, the producers of the movie decided that
the devil would be sexy and Ms. Hurley’s voluptuous figure in limited and tight
clothing became the visual highlight of the movie:
Whilst looking at Ms. Hurley in not very much was an
enjoyable experience, there was an important lesson from that movie. The
character she plays is the personification of all that’s evil and even if that
personification is dressed up in a very “attractive package.” Hence, the male
lead, played by Brandon Fraser gets screwed throughout. Simply put, he gets an
attractive proposition (the girl he’s infatuated with) from an attractive package
(Ms. Hurley with with not very much on). He only gets out of his predicament towards the end
of the movie when he goes for what he needs (his dream girl’s happiness rather
than his desire to be with her) and looks beyond the attractive offer from the
attractive messenger.
The producers
of Bedazzled probably never imagined that their movie would be anything more
than that. However, as things turned out, the movie turned out to be prophetic.
Sixteen years later, the Western World would see the rise populist politicians
like Donald Trump in the USA, Nigel Farage in the UK, Geert Wilders in the
Netherlands and let’s not forget Marine Le Pen in France.
All these
politicians found a niche – the forgotten working class or the “losers of
globalisation.” They tapped into the anger of this group and found an “attractive”
message, “Your plight is not your fault, its fault of a corrupt elite trying to
replace you with dirty, dark people from elsewhere, who will rape your women (literally)
and you (figuratively by stealing the job that should be yours).”
Say what you
like about that message, but it resonated with a large number of people, and
whilst only Trump managed to win power, all of them have become key players in
their respective nations. The “message” like the Devil’s message in Bedazzled
has become not just addictive but “normal.” As mentioned in a previous posting,
while Trump may have messed up Covid (says something when the world’s most
advanced nation has higher cases than proverbial S**holes), he still commands a
near religious following who, as he said, would forgive him even if he shot
someone in public.
Whilst Trump
generates the most discussion, the most interesting far right politician is in
fact Ms. Marine Le Pen, leader of the National Rally in France. At the time of
writing, Ms. Le Pen has made it to the second round of the French Presidential
Election, where she faces the current President, Mr. Emanuel Macron. This is
what you call a rematch of 2017, when the then unknown Mr. Macron got two
thirds of the vote to Ms. Le Pen’s third.
At the time of
writing, the polls have indicated that Mr. Macron should probably be returned
to power. However, unlike 2017, Mr. Macron cannot take victory for granted (a
Le Pen presidency cannot be ruled out) as the margins will be significantly
tighter (Ms. Le Pen is expected to get 47 percent of the vote).
So, you can
argue that regardless of what happens, Ms. Le Pen is the actual winner of this
election. She has pulled off what nobody ever imagined possible – she has made
the National Rally or the National Front as it was known, electable. Ms. Le Pen
inherited the National Front from her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, a far-right
politician who was quite happy to describe the Nazi Holocaust as a mere detail
of history.
The older Le
Pen was what you could call part of the “Crazies,” and whilst he did have an
audience, the National Front was essentially unelectable. Nobody in their right
mind would give actual power to Mr. Le Pen. When, Mr. Pen had a freak-streak of
luck in the 2002 Presidential election and eliminated the Socialist Prime Minister,
Lionel Jospin in the first round, the Socialist party’s voters rushed to vote
for the incumbent, Jacques Chirac. Blocking Le Pen senior from power became
imperative for voters.
Ms. Le Pen has
changed that. The National Front has been “rebranded” as the National Rally and
Ms. Le Pen has “de-demonised” the party, including removing her father. The
thugs have gone and if you listen to Ms. Le Pen, she sounds like a Singaporean
politician – reasonable and rational.
Ms. Le Pen has
done much better than her father ever did and in the 2022, she’s run a savvy
campaign, hitting Mr. Macron where it hurts the most. She focused on rising
prices and how they’ve hurt the most vulnerable. She’s found a way to resonate
with “normal” voters.
Mr. Macron has not
helped himself. Whilst he has presided good economic figures and lower unemployment,
he’s come across as out of touch:
You could say
that Mr. Macron gets what Singapore’s ruling party gets online. When he talks
about strong economic growth, Ms. Le Pen hits him with “Economic growth for whom?”
So, credit to
Ms. Le Pen for rebranding her party and becoming an attractive candidate for “normal”
voters. Like the Devil in Bedazzled, she’s packaged an attractive message well.
However, one
needs to ask if Ms. Le Pen is really an attractive person deserving of power or
is she like the Devil in Bedazzled, still the devil no matter how she may look
or sound. Let’s face it, even if Ms. Le Pen has “de-crazied” the message of the
National Rally (Front), her message is still pretty much the same. Yes, the
message can sound reasonable and it may resonate, but should it be normal? Just
take a look at the following from Politico:
https://www.politico.eu/article/marine-le-pen-french-election-france-in-her-own-words-macron/
She’s not
sending mindless thugs onto the street but her solution remains similar to the
simplicity of Trump’s – focus on the minorities and brutalise them with the
force of the law when possible.
Sure, Ms. Le
Pen has tried to soften some of her more extremist stances like leaving the EU
and NATO (the institutions that guarantee economic and military security) and
she’s also tried to soften her support for the villain of the year – Russia’s
president, Vladimir Putin.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-61073894
However, as anyone
who works in marketing communications or branding will tell you – no amount of
branding or communication can change what a product is. Ms. Le Pen is at heart
a snake oil saleslady pushing for the worst in humankind. In 2017, the French
voters defied a trend to keep the ultimate prize away from Ms Le Pen. Say what
you like about Mr. Macron but he’s not brought out the lowest in people and has
kept France on the path of sanity. The French voters should remember that a
sexy devil is still a devil.
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