French election inspires U.S. Left

ABC News:

The attitudes in America and in France could hardly be more different. For the past two years, the Tea Party has redirected the political conversation to focus on less government and less spending in the U.S.

In Paris on Sunday, France's President-Elect Francois Hollande declared in his victory speech that "austerity can no longer be the only option."

Gavin Wright, a Stanford professor of American economic history, has argued, as liberals have during the health care debate, that Americans actually enjoy some socialist programs, like Social Security and Medicare. And he notes that one of the most popular programs in U.S. history, the post-Depression "New Deal," championed by FDR, put the public back to work and helped stem rural poverty.

In the United States, negative sentiment surrounding communists and socialists spawned during the McCarthy era all but erased those parties from the modern political scene.

And socialist leaders in the United States say that the system works against them. They say the electoral system forces the public to choose between two main parties that gobble up corporate donations; that powerful unions would rather side with Democrats; and that without a congressional system of proportional representation — in which seats are divvied up based on how many votes candidates get — third parties don't have a fair shot at legislating.

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