Commentary: From France to the U.S., why ‘self-made’ politicians are winning

Are the “New Brood” of politician who proudly state they’re “independent” or “self made” without a Party are truly that? – PB/TK

Commentary: From France to the U.S., why ‘self-made’ politicians are winning – By John Lloyd  April 21 2017

The political party is dying and independents now rule among voters around the globe. France has emerged as the leader of this movement, and the first confirmation of its depth and likely permanence will come on Sunday, when the French vote in the first round of their presidential election.

We know something is serious when a comic takes it up as a cause. Earlier this week the comedian-pundit John Oliver told his viewers that the election of National Front candidate Marine Le Pen would destroy Europe.

Yet of the three leading candidates, Le Pen is the most traditional.

Compared to her two main challengers, Jean-Luc Melenchon and Emmanuel Macron, Le Pen is still “rooted” in a party with a history and tradition. The National Front was founded in 1972 and dominated by her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, who soon became its leader. It was an heir to the less radical Poujadisme movement of the 1950s, which united small traders and farmers against the forces of modernity.

The elder Le Pen made the party overtly racist and especially anti-Semitic. His daughter has dropped much of the anti-Semitism in favour of strong opposition to Muslim immigration, and still stronger attacks on globalisation and the European Union, seen as the major factors in a betrayal of the working and lower middle classes.

Her opponents present themselves as self-made men and, less convincingly, outsiders. Melenchon has been a politician for decades: a Trotskyist, he joined the Socialist Party, was briefly a junior minister, then found it too tame and went back to the far left. In the 2012 presidential election he received 11 percent of the vote. He now receives between 17 and 20 percent in the polls, putting him in third place, and rising.

Continue to reuters.com article: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-french-election-commentary-idUSKBN17M2HR