Vichy Conservatives

by Lloyd Billingsley

Collaborators with the Biden Junta in the Café Américain.

“Country club Republicans” was once the description of choice for those conservatives more concerned with their own pedigree and status than implementing policies that benefit the people. RINOs, “Republicans in name only,” is now more common but a new term from Paul du Quenoy at American Greatness is far more accurate.

“Vichycons” – Vichy conservatives – applies to those soi-disant conservatives comfortable with conditions under the Biden Junta, what Angelo Codevilla calls an oligarchy – after serious election irregularities that Conrad Black helpfully outlines. The Vichy reference goes back to the 1940s and the 1942 film Casablanca dramatizes the parallels.

Paris has fallen to the German National Socialist invaders, and their puppet Gen. Pétain governs from Vichy. From Nazi-occupied countries across Europe, people flee to French-controlled Morocco, where a measure of liberty still prevails. Still, the gendarmes demand to see papers, criminals lurk on every hand, and life is cheap. That may sound familiar to Americans in 2021, but there’s more to it.

In Casablanca, police captain Louis Renault (Claude Rains) entertains the Nazi delegation headed by Major Heinrich Strasser (Conrad Veidt). Resistance leader Victor Laszlo (Paul Henreid) has shown up in Casablanca, and Strasser demands that Laszlo not escape to America via Lisbon. Captain Renault duly collaborates.

American Rick Blaine (Bogart) operates the Café Américain, a thriving nightclub and casino. One night Major Strasser and his squad commandeer the piano and croon a German fight song. Victor Laszlo counters by having the house band strike up “La Marseillaise.” The French patrons join in with gusto, the Germans give up, and the tearful Yvonne (Madeleine LeBeau) shouts “Vive la France!”

full story at https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/08/vichy-conservatives-lloyd-billingsley/