Napoleon and The Guillotine From Lara’s Eyes

I was able to schedule an interview for the 10th of November, 2022 where I was able to meet up with Ms. Lara McLain to dive deeper into topics of politics, I had the pleasure of meeting my dear friend during my time at the Sorbonne Paris last year, where we bonded over our shared immigration experience. Lara is a sociology student who prior to last year was studying journalism at Seattle University. Lara partook in multiple political demonstrations where she was able to convey or express her beliefs on certain controversial topics. I took interest in these political demonstrations as I once believed they were taboo and often carried a lot of stigmas and didn’t lead to any progress considering my background and lack of experience in such a domain. Moving to France, where it is somewhat integrated into their culture to be proactive from a political perspective was eye-opening for both of us (having university shut down due to certain protests regularly, to the point we as students weren’t able to attend most of the 2nd term last academic year.)

Q : What’s your political background ?

A : I think I’ve been very political for most of my life, which is unusual for Americans I think. My family has always been very open about their political beliefs, even when I was little. I remember helping my dad vote when I was like four years old, and then I remember my family having a party when Obama was elected back in ’08 (my family are nerds). So I really didn’t have a choice as to whether or not I wanted to be politically motivated, to be interested in politics. It’s kinda weird honestly, growing up none of my friends had the same family dynamic. None of my friends’ families involved them in politics.

Q : Do you think your family’s political beliefs impacted your current beliefs ? 

A : I would say so, although I definitely differ from my family in a lot of ways. But growing up, leftist values were always very important. That being said, after moving to France, I consider my family quite centrist. 

Q : Have you noticed a difference in political orientation in the US vs. in France ?

A : Absolutely. I think most people are probably aware of this but the left leaning party in the US, the Democratic party, is quite centrist or even right leaning when compared to the left leaning parties in other countries. The US is ultimately very conservative in its political structure. 

Q : How has the US, or the context of your country, impacted your political orientation ? 

A :I think my country has had a massive impact on my political orientation. Ever since I can remember I’ve been kind of disappointed by my country. Not so much the people, I think most Americans are good at the end of the day, but our politics, and the system as a whole, is so broken. It’s all literally designed to benefit those at the top. One thing about my country that has had a big impact on me would be the medical system. My grandmother has type 1 diabetes which means that she fully relies on an insuline  pump in order to survive. When I was younger, she was barely able of afford insuline because it’s so expensive in the US. Medical costs are completely unregulated. The only reason she can afford it now is because she benefits from a specific form of government medical insurance that is reserved for the elderly, and even with that insurance, her medical expenses are still pretty high. So I just remember seeing my whole family worry and struggle with my grandmother’s diabetes. I very quickly realized that the US, the government, doesn’t really care about the people. It’s not a government by and for the people even though it claims to be. So since I was pretty little I’ve been in support of public health care. In the US, that means I’m considered a communist. 

Q : How do people in the US react to your political beliefs, and how do they react in France ? 

A : In the US, like I said, I’m considered a communist. And communism is so vilified. Basically, if you have any beliefs that are left of center, there’s a large subset of the American population who will consider you a communist, in a negative sense. Whereas in France, people don’t seem to have a negative reaction to my political views. I’m not considered crazy or a zealot or anything like that. 

Q : Are you a communist though ? 

A : Yeah a bit. 

Q : So how does the protest culture compare between the US and France ? 

A : I think it’s so interesting because in the US, people only protest when things get really bad. Like in Ferguson they protested when somebody was murdered. In LA they protested when someone was nearly beaten to death. People protested across the country when Trump was elected, after he said all those horrible things about women. Then the country protested again when George Floyd was literally murdered. So you see ? People in the US really only protest when something really bad happens, when things get really dire. And I’m not sure that our protests really accomplish much, aside from the George Floyd protests which did create some progress. But in France, protest is part of the culture. I feel like people consider protesting to be a civic duty. And in France, I think protests really accomplish change. I mean, think about May 1968. That made progress in French society. I really appreciate the way that protests, and political action in general, are valued in France. French society is just so much more innately political. 

Q : Is there anything you’d like to add to conclude ? 

A : Yeah, I just think that Americans are afraid of politics while the French appreciate and participate in politics. Americans are just deeply afraid, and I think that’s evident to the rest of the world.