With the runoff election in France coming up on May 7, the far-right National Front party is seeing unprecedented levels of support: their candidate Marine Le Pen is polling (at press time) 41% to centrist Emmanuel Macron’s 59%. You may have seen this described as part of a global right-wing surge that’s included Brexit and the election of Donald Trump, or read that some of Trump’s staff have connections to right-wing parties in Europe. But what are the characteristics and history of the European far right? And what can figures like Marine Le Pen tell us about contemporary American politics? Hold your nose, because today’s workout is all about some of the more odious personalities and ideas we can find in politics today.
No Hate, No Fear
Given all of its failures, one might conclude that the first 102 days of the Trump presidency have been a disaster for the president’s policies. Unfortunately, there is at least one area in which the new administration has done exactly as they promised—mass roundups of undocumented immigrants, databases of individuals with open immigration cases (including infants, children, and asylum seekers), and a new hotline for reporting “crimes by aliens.”
Green Jobs, Green Planet
Renewable energy isn’t just better for the planet, it’s better for job creation, too. Today, we’re going to be saving the planet, one step at a time.