Talk:David French

Delete Debate

See article's entry in the Articles for Deletion page — Preceding unsigned comment added by Statesman 88 (talk • contribs) 06:21, 1 June 2016 (UTC)

One of the references for this page refers to the subject as a "random dude off the street". I don't think that Mr. French's life story needs to be preserved in Wikipedia at this time. Dethslayer666 (talk) 05:40, 1 June 2016 (UTC)

The possibility of an independent run for president is pretty noteworthy, if he runs. 99.108.45.119 (talk) 05:46, 1 June 2016 (UTC)

He's a random dude on the street compared to more "establishment" figures in politics, perhaps. It is easy to argue he is not notable enough to be a Presidential nominee, but it is hard to argue that he is not notable enough to be on Wikipedia. Statesman 88 (talk) 06:02, 1 June 2016 (UTC)

Anyone can potentially run for President. At this point he is a hypothetical candidate for a hypothetical campaign. By this criteria he is no more noteworthy than any other natural born American citizen over the age of 35. Dethslayer666 (talk) 06:13, 1 June 2016 (UTC)

Controversy

Why was my updated edit removed? It was balanced and the two critics' views shortened, as requested. Can someone please explain this? THis constroversy is important, substantive and worth discussing.

User: o5o7 —Preceding undated comment added 18:59, 31 May 2019 (UTC)

No response? I think it's fair to give this a week to see if anyone will argue the case and then I'm restoring what seems to me a balanced edit on an important controversy. Thanks.

User: o5o7 —Preceding undated comment added 22:50, 31 May 2019 (UTC)

I don't think this content is appropriate given the requirements of due weight. First, the text is seven paragraphs long; the entire rest of the article, including the lead section, is ten paragraphs long. I don't think devoting 40%+ of the article's total space is appropriate. Second, the text is a lot of inside baseball; it's basically a back-and-forth discussion between French and critics further to his right. There's no mention of receptions or reactions among centrists, liberals, libertarians, leftists, etc. to French's writings or statements. It's an interesting window on the American right and their internal battles, but presenting that without context or views outside the American right seems wrong to me.

I'm not opposed to having a "reception" section, but not at this level of length, and not focusing exclusively on the right. Also pinging Kleuske since he also removed this content. Neutrality^talk 19:20, 1 June 2019 (UTC)

She fully concurs with this assessment. Kleuske (talk) 20:13, 1 June 2019 (UTC)

The controversy has obviously become important and widely discussed. I tried to write a fairly balanced account. It was blocked. I'm not bothered to try again. But I'm registering here my belief that the blocking of this controversy from the page was wrong-headed and possibly partisan.

User: o5o7 —Preceding undated comment added 12.26, 9 June 2019 (UTC)

Presidential vote

Hello,

I recently ran across an interesting fact in an article from Reason: in the 2020 election, French received one write-in vote for the presidency in Vermont (one of the only states to break down the number of votes received by each write-in online). I was wondering whether this is worth mentioning in the article. I’m admittedly not well-versed in judgment calls like this, but my gut tells me “no” — one person deciding to write in his name doesn’t seem particularly notable (Reagan and a misspelled Eisenhower received more Vermont votes than he did in the 2020 election!), and the author of that article regards it as more humorous than important — but on the very, very off chance that someone begs to differ, and thinks this is worth noting, I just wanted to put it out there.

(Note: moments ago, I attempted to post this, but it did not register on the Talk Page, so allow me to try again.)

Thanks, —Historical-idealist (talk) 03:34, 21 March 2021 (UTC)

French was "canceled" by the Presbyterian Church in America

Full story here. French was attacked by the alt-right, Christian Nationalists, Trump supporters, and finally, his own church, who he now realizes (after all this time?) is full of racists, homophobes, and authoritarians. This should be included in the article. Much of the attacks on French began after he and his wife adopted a black child from Ethiopia. From there, it all went downhill. Viriditas (talk) 20:56, 9 June 2024 (UTC)

I looked and was not able to find a good source for this. Maybe in a couple days something will appear. GA-RT-22 (talk) 14:34, 10 June 2024 (UTC)

That's fine. I think an opinion piece by the subject is relevant and can be used for their own bio, but it makes sense to wait for secondary sources. Just wanted to leave the update for anyone actively involved in this page. On another note, I did recently create God & Country, which has French in it. He talks about it here. Can his role in the film be mentioned here? Viriditas (talk) 20:00, 10 June 2024 (UTC)

I think it should be, yes. GA-RT-22 (talk) 20:34, 10 June 2024 (UTC)

I've put the article material in, as it also clarifies that he was a Presbyterian, not an evangelical as many claim. No idea what he would claim now. I also rearranged the section. Mangoe (talk) 01:14, 10 September 2024 (UTC)

I was hoping we would get a secondary source, but I think what you put in is fine. One small nit, the source doesn't actually say when he left the church except that it was 2022 or later. When he was invited to the panel in March 2024 he had already been away from the church for some time. Here's a secondary source but it doesn't really say anything more than what is in the editorial. GA-RT-22 (talk) 02:03, 10 September 2024 (UTC)

There is more than one Presbyterian denomination in the US. The largest is mainline, but others are evangelical. Same gkes for the Lutherans, Baptists and Methodists. 2600:1011:B153:EA13:C804:B163:572E:E8FF (talk) 21:18, 21 August 2025 (UTC)

David French NYT columnist

Wikipedia says he was born in Alabama. But a recent article by him says his “hometown” was a small town in Kentucky ~2025-40759-72 (talk) 17:48, 14 December 2025 (UTC)

I was born in DC but never lived there. I see several indexes of lawyers from around 2000 which seem to be repeating the Opelika birthplace. Why don't you listen to the cited work? Mangoe (talk) 20:10, 14 December 2025 (UTC)

"former attorney"?

Need a citation for this; he may not be practicing law at the moment but I don't see how this makes him "former". Mangoe (talk) 23:48, 11 March 2026 (UTC)

In his own words, "After 21 years of legal practice, I changed careers." Sounds former to me. YoPienso (talk) 00:15, 12 March 2026 (UTC)

Being a lawyer is not a career. Unless he was dis-barred, he would likely still be a lawyer even after he ceased practice. There are many, many lawyers who don't or have never practiced law. It's a degree and he has it. AlwaysVMW (talk) 16:16, 10 April 2026 (UTC)