Just a notion:
For lack of a better analogy: I know we are NOT suppose to like the French...so this is for illustration purposes only.
The mainstream media likens Dean to McGovern but who they REALLY should liken him to is Charles de Gaulle. He abolutely refuse to recognise Vichy France, Germany's occupation of France.
The Vichy government under Henri-Philippe Petain(a French man) declared De Gaulle an outlaw, many French at that time thought it was wiser and "safer" to cooperate with the Germans than to resist and live a free men.
Therefore, De Gaulle had to battle as many French as Germans, also his resistance movement was frequently obstructed by the French colluding with the Germans.
Of course I am painting this analogy with very broad strokes but the similarities between Vichy France and Vichy Democrats (i.e. DLC) are astonding.
Nowadays, if you really want to insult the French reminded them how complacent they were during this time and how easy it was to take away their freedoms.
Freedom fries ain't going to do it!!!
The French have airbrushed their history a bit and do not dwell on this era.
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La France des années noires (The dark years of France)
What we should learn from Vichy France:
The dictionary definition of collaboration above has positive connotations: cooperation, working together, reciprocal support, mutual assistance.
This, of course, was the spin that Vichy ministers put on the word during les années noires. The Vichy régime were convinced that a favourable relationship with a Germany that was going to conquer Europe would be secured through collaboration. German and France, two independant states working together to secure a better tomorrow for Europe.
The dictionary definitions above express little, however, of the connotations of the word collaboration for many during and after the war.
For much of the French population, the term became synonymous with betrayal, selling out to the enemy and supporting its cause and interests over those of France. The word collabo (collaborator) - frequently prefaced with the adjective sale (dirty) - was the worst insult.
[...]
One justification for collaboration put forward by Vichy ministers during and after the war was that it reduced the damage the occupiers might potentially inflict on France. After the war, Pétain used this argument at his trial. His defence claimed that Pétain and Vichy had formed (un bouclier), a shield that had protected France against the worst excesses of German domination. Historians call this defense the `shield' philosophy.
[...]
Moreover, the argument that Vichy collaboration prevented France from becoming another Poland is similarly unfounded. The `polonization' of certain sections of the French community took place, and took place, more importantly, with the complicity of the French authorities. The deportation of 75,000-80,000 Jews, the forced dispatch of 750,000 Frenchmen and Frenchwomen to work in Germany, the trials of 135,000 French people, the internment of 70,000 `enemies of the state', the complicity of the French police and the Milice in suppressing resistance are all examples of this. There was no shielding or moderating influence here.
[...]
Collaboration had not prevented the worst from happening but rather had made it possible and in any case paved the road to Auschwitz
http://www.sunderland.ac.uk/~os0tmc/occupied/collab.htm