France Gets Real.

For those who mistook the French media and the left commentariat for the French people, the election of Nicholas Sarkozy is one of those surprises that periodically break upon the unobservant. Let those who mistake the views of the biacoastal American media for the views of Americans consider themselves warned.

Never mind that on an American political spectrum, Sarkozy would be slightly left of center. The point to grab here is, as Fred Thompson points out in the National Review, that French voters went to the polls under an unambiguous threat of violence by Islamists should they dare to vote for Sarkozy. To which the French gave a collective two-fingered salute and then did the right thing.

This is the latest of several signs that perhaps Europe is awakening from its socialist torpor, its post-modern ennui, and facing the existential threat represented by Islamist ideology. Denmark, the Netherlands, and now France have all had their had their multi-culti dreams rudely shattered by the cold reality of Islamist violence. Perhaps it isn't too late. After all, this is the nation of Charles Martel.