You're right, I actually had a second take when writing this sentence, for exactly the reasons you state. France and the US aren't exactly comparable, but to me it seems the Macron "center" and the US democrats are left leaning in social issues, and go with the times, there's that, but hard right in economy with neoliberalism, trying to run a country like a private business (yes, the education department costs money, it's public service!) , and crony capitalism. That's what I was thinking about with the sliding to the right bit. In both countries the main media belong to billionaires pushing hard the far right agenda. It's exhausting. We mobilised to avoid for the far right to outright win the legislative elections, but I can't be confident we'll be so successfull in the next presidential elections. We have a real left here, but they'll bicker and split when it matters the most. It's baffling.