October 21, 2026 - Ramaswamy Doubles Down on Ugly Ad

Yesterday on radio, I discussed the civil unrest sweeping Europe, especially France. Now it has become an issue in the final two weeks of the midterm elections.

What began in late September as French high school students protesting crumbling, understaffed schools exploded this past weekend into looting and arson, with 2,400 arrests. Similar unrest has hit Italy, Spain and Albania.

Americans are looking at the same images and seeing different things. President Trump says, "This isn't about schools, this is about Islam wanting to take over a once great Country!" Campaigning in Kansas, he warned that France "is what the radical Dumocrats want to do to America." Yet French authorities have blamed far-left agitators, looters and their own police failures, not immigrants.

No Labels reads it as a fiscal warning. French government spending equals 57 percent of the economy, debt has reached 119 percent of GDP, and growth is forecast at 0.4 percent. "Socialism does not create prosperity," the group says. "It creates dependency."

The students say it's about schools and rent. New York Times contributor Glynnis MacNicol, who watched the protests in Paris, sees larger fears about "the climate catastrophe, the terror of artificial intelligence, the faltering economic picture."

Harvard pollster John Della Volpe doubts any of it moves American voters: "This is not about persuasion. It's about mobilization of the MAGA base."

Still, the contrast is worth noting. American No Kings rallies have been large and peaceful. Perhaps that's because Americans have a scheduled outlet for their anger, and it arrives November 3.

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