Punishment. François Hollande has been sent a message, via municipal elections, by the electors in France, though the message may not be exactly what the pundits are saying. Regardless, he was elected to be something other than Nicolas Sarkozy, perhaps, given that he heads the Socialist Party, some rather socialist policies, policies that might redress some of the imbalance of “market” policies outlined and implemented by his predecessor. Instead, he seems to have swallowed the Kool-Aid of the EU bureaucrats, Angela Merkel, the IMF and the World Bank, meaning that there is no way to rebuild any vision of French society that is more egalitarian and humanitarian than the standard Chicago Consensus Milton Friedman homo economicus, a smokescreen for separation of haves and have-nots, environmental degradation, and a further decline of the general standard of living, especially in the areas of health, education, housing and nutrition. These are the very areas, along with gainful employment and participation in the business of society, that the Socialists are supposed to be defending. Perhaps they might have gotten the same slapping down had they governed as socialists, but at least then they would know that they had tried to do what their natural constituency had wanted in the first place. Principle? This is a thought that Federal Liberals might want to consider here in Canada (campaign from the left, govern from the right), and that the New Democrats at all levels might want to embrace.