Charlie Hebdo is right. It's a choice between votez peur et votez beur. Une fois voté beur, les Hexagonaux pourront dire: "passe-moi le beurre, j'ai pus de vaseline" (hommage à Last Tango in Paris)

Car c'est pas demain la veille qu'ils diront: "It's time to kick ass and chew bubblegum, and I'm all out of gum" (hommage à Duke Nukem)

There is nothing wrong with voting fear if fear is warranted. Fear of course is politically incorrect as it presupposes a sensibility insufficently attuned to the grievances of the agent of fear. And fear is also weak and unmanly, which, of course, in other contexts are qualities promoted as virtues.

But nature has so endowed us that fear motivates us to quickly decide on strategies to avoid harm or, in the direst cases, to survive.

The question, then, is should France be affeared?

Voters may be swayed, they may be deceived, they may be thrown into confusion on the issues. But voters never mistake their own gut for their own well-being, for the comforts and amenities they enjoy, for their own security, for their identity. All these things are currently at hazard for the French voter. He may not understand the politics nor the demography nor the social dynamics -- but he knows all these things are slipping away.

What, then, is Charlie Hebdo's clever alternative to fear? To vote Kumbaya? To draft Jack, supermenteur and let the good old days continue till France's utter ruin?

To our friends in France, vote honestly.

Vote fear.

DGB