‘Coming Home to Smug America’

I was living in Paris during the 1988 French presidential campaign and was fortunate to observe the vast differences between the American and French presidential election processes. Unlike Americans, the French are represented by various political parties which reflect a multitude of diverse beliefs and issues.

Not only do the French actively pursue political participation, they are aware and proud of their right to vote. Moreover, they exercise that vote.

Stanley Meisler notes in his telling article (“Coming Home to Find a Smug, Scared America,” Opinion, June 4) that the French are frightened of the mindless “Americanization of their elections,” but need not worry as they are far behind the U.S. Perhaps, Meisler overdoes it with regard to his praise of the French by stating that the French presidential debates were “sharp and meaningful.”

I, too, watched those televised debates. I remember awaiting impatiently to finally see a debate of substance unlike the exchange of programmed one-liners I had been accustomed to in the States. Unfortunately, I failed to see any difference between the dialectic capabilities of Francois Mitterand and Jacques Chirac, and those of George Bush and Michael Dukakis.

A politician is a politician; campaign rhetoric and evasion of immediate concerns are constant, regardless of one’s nationality. The advent of programmed one-liners is not only an American revelation.

YASMIN NETERVALA

Los Angeles