[Unam Sanctam]

The arrogance here is just breathtaking -- the peasants will never understand a document that their betters have prepared for them, so they shouldn't have been shown the actual document and instead just told to shut up and vote "Oui".

[RS]

Your comment says it all - If their Constitution had been written so precise and concise, it might have passed.

[Frank_Discussion]

I don't often get shocked, and least often by anything the French may or may not do, but this floors me.

[Mr. Mojo]

"I said, 'Don't do it, don't do it'". "It is not possible for anyone to understand the full text".

Yep, only political elites have the necessary brainpower to comprehend such a document.

[Travis McGee]

Our own open borders elites won't make this mistake when they create the North American Union.

[Virginia Ridgerunner]

It was a crucial mistake to send out the entire constitution to every French voter, the architect of the EU's first constitution Valéry Giscard d'Estaing has said in an interview.

Yeah, if you want to get your obnoxious agenda passed, then you absolutely have to keep your constituents ignorant of it. This is certainly the first rule of thumb from the Totalitarian's Handbook, used everyday in Dictatorship 101...

[Vicomte13]

There is a reason why Valéry Giscard d'Estaing is the only President of the Fifth Republic to have failed to be re-elected by the people.

And he continues to manifest that reason all of these years later.

Restrain the nature, it returns at a gallop. Giscard's arrogance is the reason Giscard is a political failure.

[KarlInOhio]

"It is not possible for anyone to understand the full text".

I often sign 488 page legal documents that not only I don't understand, but it is impossible for anyone to understand.

[An.American.Expatriate]

"It is not possible for anyone to understand the full text".

This quote says all you need to know....

[Semper Paratus]

One crucial mistake was to send out the entire three-part, 448-article document to every French voter

Should have sent it only to voters supporting it?

[joebuck]

"It is not possible for anyone to understand the full text".

I can't think of a stronger argument against ratifying any proposed constitution that this observation of Giscard.

[LIConFem]

d'Estaing is still alive?

[the gillman@blacklagoon.com]

Well, here's the documents our guys are putting together.
You bet we won't be voting on it.

http://www.cfr.org/pub7914/press_release/trinational_call_for_a_north_american_economic_and_security_community_by_2010.php

http://www.cfr.org/pub8104/press_release/task_force_urges_measures_to_strengthen_north_american_competitiveness_expand_trade_ensure_border_security.php

[Dems_R_Losers]

Man, that pesky democracy....don't you just hate it when the people get in the way of the elites deciding what's good for them.

[Cicero]

Translation: "Vote first, and learn what you've voted for afterward. In fact, just shut up and vote."

[Aquinasfan]

"It is not possible for anyone to understand the full text".

Wouldn't that be a good reason to reject it?

[Eurotwit]

fyi

[ClearCase_guy]

"Let them eat cake."
"Let them vote Oui."

[CGVet58]

am with you all the way. Arrogance is too gentle a description; the self-anointed elitist might as well have said, "let's just do this anyway! The sheeple will willingly follow where we, their Betters, will lead!!!"

[dangus]

Psychologically, it must be unnerving to receive a phone-book-sized package in the mail from the government, asking you to approve it as if it were a contract. There's a difference between making it available, and dropping a bomb in people's laps.

That said, I'm glad the French nannies were such ninnies. :^)

[Ditto]

The arrogance here is just breathtaking...

Boy. You're not kidding there. "We shouldn't show it to the "rabble" because they can't understand it."

Good grief. Where's Robespierre when you really need him?