There have been signs that the right has been gaining in elections for years. The nation has slowly been favoring candidates favoring restrictive immigration policies. The voices in the national legislature preaching “smaller government” continue to get louder, though none of the voices seem willing to give up their job to governmental downsizing. Economic problems have led to programs against minorities and immigrants, while trying to promote religious purity and brutal crime bills as a solution to political problems.

These statements are no big news to Americans, especially coming from a malcontent like myself. The problem is that I’m not talking about America. Rather, I’m talking about the well-known epitome of the moderate left wing in the Western Hemisphere – France.

In recent years, France has a push for the right wing in nearly unprecedented proportions. Granted, as a general rule, the right wing in France would generally still be considered ultra-liberals in the American Midwest, but one man is doing his best to change all that: Jean-Marie Le Pen, the party leader and presidential candidate for the National Front party.

Now, it appears that Le Pen, the David Duke of French politics, may just get a serious chance. French exit polls have Le Pen qualifying for the run-off election with incumbent Jacques Chirac of the Rally for the Republic party, which had previously benefited from dejected voters of the racist radical-right party.

The frightening fact is that this information comes from in-person exit polls, indicating that there are probably even more voters for Le Pen than currently estimated. People generally find it hard to admit that they have racist tendencies or that they vote for extremists, (When asked in person,) so it could easily turn out that Le Pen has a bigger base of support than we thought.

Now we shouldn’t forget that racism is certainly not an exclusive possession of the right wing, even in our own country. After all, ancient Sen. Robert Byrd was a member of the Ku Klux Klan in his 20s, which I’d currently estimate as being several hundred years ago, and Sen. Ernest Hollings opposed the integration of the University of South Carolina while serving as governor.

However, we’ve managed to keep our racist tendencies to a minimum. Republicans are smart enough not to nominate Pat Buchanan and his “America First” policy, because doing so would alienate the millions of unaffiliated Americans who decide the country’s elections. Furthermore, even if Democrats harbored such views, they couldn’t dare speak without ensuring their own defeat by attacking one of their traditional groups of support.

The National Front, however, is a little more up-front, since Le Pen himself has referred to the Holocaust as a historical footnote and blames France’s problems on North African immigrants. Thanks largely to voter apathy and people discontent with a flagging economy and rising crime, the French voters who did turn out supported Le Pen and his unfailingly offensive anti-immigrant policies.

It may be a huge blessing that Socialist prime minister Lionel Jospin has been eliminated from the runoff, since now it would seem that the French left will simply join Chirac and, quite literally, rally for the republic in order to ensure Le Pen’s defeat, but the possibility of Le Pen finding even more support is still an extraordinarily unsettling one.

That’s why it’s time to follow our standard foreign policy towards elections – ignore their results and decide them over again.

Let’s admit it. We don’t really care all that much about democratic principles, particularly not when they take place in other countries, and if you don’t believe me, ask our good friends Jorge Videla and Auguste Pinochet.

That’s why, now more than ever, we need our national hero, winner of the Nobel Prize for bombing the hell out of non combatants – Henry Kissinger.

Soon, we may need his talents back. After all, Kissinger is the Jim Henson of puppet governments. Colin Powell might be a great general and a good peacemaker, but Kissinger installs governments faster than most of us could install a light bulb.

However, thanks to Baltazar Garzon, a Spanish judge who has attempted to extradite Pinochet for prosecution, we may never get to put these governments in place. Garzon is currently seeking to question Kissinger about his actions in overthrowing and re-installing governments in South America during the 1970s, and though the repercussions will be minimal, it might make Kissinger more hesitant to get himself involved in my own master plan.

Kissinger, keep your eyes on Western Europe. Between the already-elected Jorg Haider in Austria and Jean-Marie Le Pen in France, we may need you. If you happen to take our racists with them, well, you have to crack a few eggs, I guess.

Tim Kearns is a senior in political science from Bellevue, Neb.