It has been said on both sides of the pond, by people my age and older, that it wasn’t so much they who had left the Left, but rather the Left who had left them.
If you are from the US, maybe you are familiar with the following quote, often attributed to Ronald Reagan : « I didn’t leave the Democratic party, the Democratic party left me.
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In my personal case, there is actually a bit of both.
For instance, my postion on immigration hasn’t changed that much: I never believed open borders were a viable option and that was the position of the Left in the 1980’s.
Georges Marchais, leader of the PCF ( French Communist Party) called for a halt to both illegal and legal immigration and Prime Minister Michel Rocard, member of the PS (Socialist Party), famously said that France could not take in the whole world’s misery.
That sentence has been cited and paraphrased ever since, pretty much every time the topic of immigration comes up.
What has changed though is that today I am much more in favor of assimilation.
As far as I’m concerned, multiculturalism and diversity are neither good nor bad per se, but there is a point when they become a problem.
Angela Merkel admitted that much in 2010 , and it seems pretty obvious in some instances.
For example, whenever the chronic instability of certain African countries is discussed, the blame is pretty much always laid on France and other former colonial powers for drawing the borders of said countries without taking into account the different ethnic groups that live there, thus creating entities that are too heterogeneous to hold together.
This is one of the reasons why today, I am much more in favor of people who move to another country applying the old adage : « When in Rome, do as the Romans do.
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This was once considered common sense, but many people on the Left today view it as Far-Right extremism. Go figure !
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