Could unrest in France spread to the US? Professor weighs in

All right, I want to get back to what Anthony was just mentioning here. Massive demonstrations over soaring living costs, high fuel prices turned violent in France over the weekend. Yeah, it's protests like these that many Americans are asking if this kind of civil unrest could spread to the United States. So let's loop in. William Mock, professor of political science at North Central College, chiming in on this. Professor Mock, thanks for joining us. Can you start off by giving us a little bit of idea of how these protests started in France and kind of how they have evolved. Yeah, this is a really interesting point because it began with sort of these long-standing concerns among students. So the protests began with young people who were frustrated about educational opportunities, lack of services, and then it sort of merged with the labor unions who also were frustrated about economic opportunities, inequality. And so that was sort of the baseline pressure. And then you sprinkle on the cost increase of fuel from the Iran war, and that's really what gave the accelerant to this movement. So it began with sort of these general frustrations with globalization, frustrations with economic opportunities for young people in labor. And then it really exploded. And what we've seen is that there have been a lot of very, very peaceful protests. But at the same time, there's a significant amount of group that is also using this as an opportunity to engage in violence. And I think that's what's the most disturbing, these pressures translating into violence all across the country, and potentially even at other spots in Europe. I think that's what's really, really stunning about this. So at this point, I mean, these protesters, they're obviously, we just mentioned, there are things that they are upset about. They want to see action from the government. What's the government's stance on this? Are they doing anything to, I guess, you know, give in? And I don't want to say give in to the protesters, but you know what I mean. Absolutely, right? Yeah. And President Macron, the president of France yesterday, gave a major address. And it was really, really fascinating to see what he talked about, because he acknowledged many of the economic and political frustrations of young people, of labor in general, because it's sort of the same frustration and angst that we feel in the United States in terms of not feeling like young people have economic opportunities. Can you buy a house? Can you afford health insurance? These are the kind of issues that people are frustrated with. At the same time, he flatly rejected any resorting to violence and condemned those groups. So it was really extraordinary to see him walk this line between acknowledging some of the very real economic pain that people are feeling and the outrage at the violence and the burning of the cities. Like there's this sort of this really tension between those two moments. Let's switch gears and talk about President Trump's recent action to try to help oil prices here domestically, specifically diesel prices, making this deal with Russia, waiving sanctions against Russia. It has gotten criticism on both sides of the aisle here, Trump being criticized for drawing closer to Putin, kinda leaving Zelensky and Ukraine out to dry. What do you think are the implications here with the midterms coming up? It's really dramatic stuff, right? I think both in terms of the impact for US elections coming up, but also where the United States is on the Ukraine war. I think the other thing to mention is concerns over Starlink and Star Shield, whether the United States is tweaking or manipulating that to make it more difficult for Ukraine to intercept missiles coming in. This is a dramatic development where the United States or specifically the president appears to be shifting sides. And it's hard to argue that these policies aren't much more beneficial to Vladimir Putin than they are to Ukraine. I think that's what we've seen coming out of Ukraine is a real criticism of the United States and the president in particular. And what I'm really curious about is how does the American public respond to this development? Because we think about post World War II order, we've been very clear on who the bad guy is. And the president seems to have a different interpretation of how we should understand the Russia Ukraine war. I mean, that's the question. We have spent a lot of money. spent a lot of weapons with Ukraine. You've got both sides, both Democrats and Republicans saying we don't agree with what the president is doing here. So what happens next? This I think is the most important question, right? Cuz you look at Congress, you have a lot of Reagan Republicans still there who look at this war and say, the good guy, bad guy is very easy. Russia invaded Ukraine, our support should be with Ukraine. Again, the president has a very different perspective on this. And we think about the The totality of these moves, whether it's the sanctions or the diesel deal or Starlink or criticizing Zelensky, saying they need a new president, all of them are, it's all this very good news for Vladimir Putin. Vladimir Putin had a great week last week. And so I'm curious, where's the American public on this? Where are these Republicans? We saw some pushback over the weekend, but are Americans in general, as we creep up toward the midterm, comfortable with the position where the president is, is again, leaning more towards Russia? We will see if they make their voices heard at the ballot box November 3rd. Professor Mark, always good to get your perspective on these important topics. Thanks for your time. Thanks for having me.