Notwithstanding all of the stories in the MSM about the anger in la France profonde, in the end, Macron won by a large margin. Should we take that to mean the extreme right will suffer a similar fate in our own country in 2024?
No, for four reasons. First, the extreme right is far less entrenched in France than it is here, due largely to the popularity of fundamentalist Christianity in the US. Second, Trump/DeSantis will have the backing of a much larger and well-established political party. Third, Macron could count on support from business interests; Biden can’t. Finally, there is no Electoral College in France. The 2020 election was close even though Biden won the popular vote by seven million votes.
The bottom line here is that right-wing populism, like a vampire, is difficult to kill once and for all. For now, we can breathe a sigh of relief and wait for the next challenge.