Pim Fortuyn

Few bloggers seem to be speculating about the assassination of Pim Fortuyn in Holland. He's (was) gay and "right-wing" and increasingly popular. Why is his violent death important? Because it adds one more reason, before the French parliamentary elections, to see Europe as increasingly violent and crime-ridden. The same emotions now attach to walking the streets of Haarlem that used to go with taking a stroll in pre-Giuliani Harlem. It will take a long time for the political culture to change in Europe, but some sort of corner has been turned. People won't put up with that kind of insecurity along with gun control and the punishment of achievement and guilt-tripping about poverty and racism. It could get ugly. I wonder what Andrew Sullivan will have to say. He saw Fortuyn as a leader of some sort in showing that gays didn't always have to be collectivists, and that they could be successful on any part of the political spectrum. Looks like Pim misjudged the ferocity of the resistance. Or maybe he just didn't care. He was my age.