In 2011, France was about to go to the polls, and at the time the country of Marie-Antoinette and Charles de Gaulle dreamed of only one thing: to take a break after five years of Nicolas Sarkozy's presidency.
Never in French history, after the Second World War, had a president been so omnipresent. Sarkozy was everywhere, to the point that the media and political commentators were talking about the "Sarko Show."
He was dubbed "the hyperpresident.”
Suffice to say that many French people, who value finesse and modesty, were fed up. They wanted at all costs to end the "Sarko Show" and get rid of "Sarko."
They wanted someone who was the exact opposite of the former lawyer. They no longer wanted bling and bravado; they no longer wanted to hear the name Sarko every time they watched the news, read a newspaper or met up with friends or family. For them it became an issue of their mental health.
Hollande: the Right President at That Moment
This preference was reflected in most of the polls. Sarkozy's popularity was declining with unexpected speed.
The former president of the IMF, Dominique Strauss-Khan, then appeared as the favorite, until his misadventure at the Sofitel in New York.
While the polls said that DSK, as he was nicknamed, would win, the French had not managed to clearly define what type of president they wanted.
But when DSK's setbacks emerged, a veteran of the French political scene arose. This was Francois Hollande, who was seen more as a civil servant than a charismatic leader.
He was the exact opposite of De Gaulle's definition of a president. The statesman had defined a presidential election as the meeting of a man or woman with the people, someone who could lead the people to the promised land. Hollande lacked all the charisma that creates such a personality. He was at ease in the background, in the shadows.
Little by little the French people learned to appreciate this discretion, and the idea of the normal president was born. The French wanted normalcy at the top, a president who left them alone, did not make a fuss, and did not get caught up in scandal. Someone who did his job for the people who elected him.
Hollande won the 2012 presidential election -- but the normal president lasted only one term.
Musk Seeks 'Someone Just Normal' in Politics
Now, a review of social-media posts makes clear that the U.S. today finds itself in the situation that France did in 2011.
Elon Musk, the serial billionaire who has become hugely influential in geopolitical affairs and in U.S. domestic politics, has said that he dreams of normal presidential candidates or normal politicians in general.
The CEO of electric-vehicle leader Tesla (TSLA), who calls himself politically moderate or center-right, responded after Billy Markus, a co-founder of the dogecoin cryptocurrency with whom Musk often interacts on Twitter, indicated that to be an American politician, one must be either corrupt or perverted.
"How to be an American politician," Markus wrote on May 10. He illustrated his point with two memes. Above were two buttons: “Corrupt” on the left, “Perverted” on the right. Below, a character raised his thumb, suggesting that he validated this point of view.
Musk seems to share Markus's despair about the political class. "Someone just normal would be great," the billionaire commented.
He did not provide more details, specifically how he defines "normal."
Twitter users then did not hesitate to tell him that he was probably asking for too much. Disappointed as well by the political class, many of them said that normal politicians are just too much to ask because power corrupts.
"Normal people don't seek this amount of power," one Twitter user responded to the tech tycoon. "The problem is the amount of power afforded to politicians."
Another Twitter user suggested that robots might be the normal politicians Musk is looking for.
"Robots?" the user suggested.
All these lamentations come as the U.S. is heading toward a rematch of the 2020 presidential election, which pitted the Democrat, Joe Biden, and the Republican, Donald Trump.
This confrontation is undesirable for many Americans, according to the polls.
The two men are of advanced age, and they're either directly or indirectly linked to scandals.
A Manhattan jury just found that Trump sexually abused journalist E. Jean Carroll in the 1990s and defamed her by saying that she had lied about the incident. The jury awarded Carroll $5 million in damages.
The former president could be charged this summer in Georgia for pressuring election officials to help give him victory in the 2020 presidential election, even though Biden won that state.
On the other side, House Republicans, under growing pressure to investigate Biden, said on May 10 that they'd uncovered financial documents showing that the president's son, Hunter Biden, brother, James Biden. and several associates received millions in payments from foreign entities in China and Romania.
They alleged, without evidence, that the payments were part of a scheme to profit from the family name.
The White House dismissed the Republican investigation as "yet another political stunt.”
Given the political field for 2024 -- mostly political veterans -- Musk is unlikely to see his wish come true.
