The WSJ editorial page yesterday all-but-endorsed the violent anti-Macron riots in France. Below is the subhead of the editorial ... "Green piety." Nice. wsj.com/articles/the-g… 1/x 
2. What's very strange about the WSJ's editorial sympathy for the French rioters is that much of the anger against Macron derives from his pro-market, pro-enterprise agenda - an agenda you might expect the WSJ to support. Headline of a Reuters story from last October
3. Macron has reduced France's wealth taxes, cut capital gains taxes, begun to reduce housing subsidies, slightly reduced payroll taxes, tinkered with the outer extremes of union negotiating power - not exactly Thatcherism, but the most market-oriented reforms in many years
4. One answer is that for the WSJ - as for so much of the conservative world - DON'T-TAX-CARBON overwhelms all other issues, especially difficult and certain-to-be-initially unpopular pro-market reforms.
5. But I think there may be more to it than this. Macron arrived on the scene as an anti-Trump: an emphatically culturally modern free-market politician, whose very existence cast an ugly light on the bargains US conservatives had struck with Donald Trump
6. Macron's intellect, integrity, and courage in office - his willingness to sacrifice short-term popularity for long-term sustainability (BOTH economic AND environmental sustainability) likewise contrasts sharply with the tawdry Trump presidency.
7. One more thing: Macron does not pander. He's an exceptional man who does not pretend to be other than what he is. Not for him the fake-folksiness, the $2000-cowboy-boot anti-elitism that has been such a WSJ speciality for so long
8. Macron may well ultimately fail. French liberalizing reformers have failed often enough since 1788. It’s almost a tradition there
9. But if you think of yourself as a pro-market, pro-enterprise person, you need to be clear-eyed about *what* failed should Macron fail. France will have lost its best hope in many years of emerging from a stagnation that has empowered extremists and authoritarians.
