They are everywhere too

Just as there are Americans who never liked George W.M.D. Bush, there are French people who, despite his vilification of their country, like him. I met my first one yesterday.

I'm not sure if I ever mentioned it on here, and I know I haven't discussed it in much detail in any case, but I've been going back to HEC on the past few weekends for one last class. Corporate finance last spring just didn't cut it for me, and I wanted to say I'd learned something rather than just surviving the experience, so it's back to the old neighborhood every weekend until December. It's a long and somewhat expensive commute, but well worth it. Luxembourg gets awfully dull on weekends, and hey, I do some of my best thinking on trains. In any case, I had breakfast with a fellow student in that class yesterday, a French undergrad whom I hadn't met before.

Now, when people over here ask if I'm American, saying "Oui mais je deteste Bush" has always been good for a laugh. I said it a lot at first, but nowadays I usually don't say it unless people ask what I think of him. I do, however, often allow the subject in if people ask whether I plan to stay in Europe or go back home after I'm done. I often say I'd like to stay over here until Mr. Honor and Dignity goes back to Texas. I said as much yesterday when the fellow student I was eating with asked me about my future plans.

"You don't like Bush?" he asked.
"Not at all," I told him.
"Why not?" I reeled off a fairly brief and, for me, diplomatic list of things I don't like about him. My new friend listened politely, then said, "Really? I think except for Iraq he's been a great president."
"Okay," I said agreeably. Even I don't like talking politics all the time.
"Don't you like his tax policies?"
"Cutting taxes on the rich and not cutting anywhere else to pay for the war? Not really."
I knew what he'd say about that, and sure enough, he did. "But if you tax the rich, no one will want to work to make any money. Then you won't get any tax revenue anyhow."
I could have driven a Mack truck through that one, of course, but like I said, I wasn't in a mood to argue. "You're entitled to your opinion," I said.
"And what about his social policies?"
"That's what I like least of all," I told him.
"But look what you get over here, when you let people do whatever they want. Look at the Netherlands."
"You mean the drugs and prostitution?" That, I could agree with, although I don't like the Republican response to such things.
"No, I mean the homosexuality!" At which point I joked that we ought to switch passports ("I'd like to!" he said) and then excused myself to head to class.

Later on, on the train back to Paris, I talked to another guy in the class about it. He said everybody else in their intake agrees the kid is a nice guy, but his politics are rather bizarre. He - the guy on the train - also said he is originally from the Netherlands (but now a French citizen), hence the non sequitur example he threw into the conversation. It is rather nice to live in a place where that outlook on the world is considered bizarre, that's for sure.