Gay Mayor of Paris sets his sights on French presidency
I have always seen conservatives as people with their finger in the dike, essentially trying to hold back any progressive advancement, and I am always very pleased to see how generally unsuccessful they are in their task.
For instance, despite conservative governments being in charge for most of the 20th century, it was still a century of great advancement for liberalism. If one looks at the rights gained by women, blacks and gays, it is very hard not to look at the 20th century as a very liberal one.
And, indeed, many of the progressive advancements which conservatives fought against at the time, they have now come to embrace.
For example, David Cameron, leading the party which once introduced the despicable Clause 28 which "prohibited local councils from distributing any material, whether plays, leaflets, books, etc, that portrayed gay relationships as anything other than abnormal", has now made it a priority for the Tory party to enlist more gay MP's.
And now I read this:
Will a black American president shake hands one day with a gay president of France? Barack Obama has already taken strides towards reversing the conventional, racial wisdom of US politics. Bertrand Delanoë, the popular, successful, gruff, acerbic – and gay – Mayor of Paris took his first step yesterday on a four-year obstacle course which could, in theory, take him to the Elysée Palace in 2012.
In the introduction to a book of interviews, outlining a market-oriented and even Blairist future for Socialism in France, M. Delanoë hinted strongly that he would run for the leadership of the Parti Socialiste in November and probably seek the party's presidential nomination in four years' time. He was ready, he said, to "invest my convictions and energy in my country" if "democracy and the Socialist Party call on me... to act".
I've always had a lingering pity for Conservatives, who I see as essentially frightened human beings, clinging for safety to the past, afraid of anything which they do not understand.
And I find it frankly astonishing that, in the 21st Century, people still seriously make the argument that America is still not ready to elect a black president. I feel very confident that, come November, America will do just that.
And the news coming out of France makes me smile just as broadly, knowing that progressive politics will eventually overcome the prejudices of the people with their fingers in the dike.
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