Word from Europe: Change
Terry H. Schwadron
July 9, 2025
British voters just elected a new government — a switch in governing parties to the Left — in little more than a. month. French voters on Sunday nearly upended their government to the Right in snap elections called about three weeks ago and is forcing a new coalition with consolidated Center-Left parties.
In the United States, we’ve made elections a full-time job, with our newly elected politicians starting in virtually the next day on raising money towards a reelection campaign. The presidential elections go on for two years at a time, and a candidate is considered “late” if not fully committed 18 months out.
It’s not like the results are any more satisfying.
Indeed, other than opting for “change,” it is hard to see how the practicalities of daily life are now going to suddenly switch in Britain. What has been seen as ailing the country is a perennially sluggish economy, wage stagnation, issues with the public health system and a variety of issues from Brexit, the breakaway from Europe, climate change, immigration policies, long-term effects of Covid and other such factors. Do we really believe that Britons have changed their values? No, just their leaders.
Likewise, France’s elections may reflect more anti-immigrant emotion than thoughtful resolution of economic or foreign relations issues. The close election has left the country in ideological limbo, with coalitions required to form a new government and a heavy touch of anti-Semitism.
What’s the lesson here: Voters in both countries, strong allies, have just voted to throw the bums out, whatever they stand for. They seem to insist that government help them personally and to blame migrants or someone other than themselves for whatever they feel is wrong-headed.
Taking in Lessons
It’s the stuff we ought to be considering in our own elections more than the personalities or the age of our would-be leaders.
Weirdly, whether the election season is long or short, there is no shortage of criticism for the candidates who make it to the end. Details apart, our current obsession with Joe Biden’s effectiveness and age and with Trump’s lying and lawbreaking ways were just as valid a year ago.
New Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer is promising that “My government will make you believe again,” that “We will rebuild Britain.” and that “Brick by brick, we will rebuild the infrastructure of opportunity,” but his team will face the same chronic shortage of housing and long delays in health care that beset the Tories who preceded him.
Easy answers are just that.
Real change to a growth economy in which all benefit — in Britain or here — will take a lot of time and investment, whether in taxes or new businesses, which demand consistency for the long term.
The right-wing in France presses its leadership on issues ranging from migrants to continuing aid to Ukraine, a sharper ideological split than Britain. The party supports ending the automatic right to citizenship for those born to foreign parents in France and restricting citizenship by naturalization as well as access to social services and housing. The party wants a law targeting Islamist ideologies, although it does not elaborate on how.
Any of this sounding familiar? Let’s skip the obvious, like how punishing someone else in crisis is going to help us.
The overall Republican Party message and the speeches from Donald Trump hit many of the same notes, and the MAGA-adopted Project 2025 agenda lays out steps that a Republican “second revolution” would seek to achieve.
As in France and Britain, they call it “populism” and use the banner as an organizing principle for isolationism, upending business regulation, closing the borders, and wholly adopting anti-abortion and a variety of other “moral” stands that amount to making this a white-dominated, Christian nation. Trump now says he does not agree with all the goals, but his website aligns well with the stated objectives
When they can stop talking about Joe Biden’s age and chances of winning in this environment, Democrats talk about the need for government to help fix economic problems, recognize our increasingly diverse population, taxing the rich, and maintaining our allied relationships.
Then we insist on voting for the person who looks most vigorous on television — expecting that personality will translate into governmental policies.
Sometime soon, we need to rethink how we pick our leaders. We wouldn’t hire someone to run our company or even our neighborhood Little League the way we do our presidents.
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