Meloni, Mussolini, and the Media

 

Whenever Italy elects a right-of-center Prime Minister, the international press labels them a fascist and links them to Mussolini (coincidentally, the only Italian PM they’ve heard of). What was true for Silvio Berlusconi and Mario Draghi is true of their latest PM, Giorgia Meloni, elected over the weekend. To wit:

I’m no scholar in Italian politics, nor have I invested much time researching the 317 parties jockeying for control from Turin to Taranto. But considering the news media’s coverage of U.S. politics, I didn’t fall for their latest imprecation.

They claimed Ronald Reagan was a fascist. As was Bush Sr., Bush Jr., McCain, Romney, and Trump. As I type, the press is pivoting from “Trump is literally Hitler” to “DeSantis is even more Hitlery than Hitler.” Hell, they thought Liz Cheney was a fascist until a few years ago.

So, their track record is, let’s say, spotty. And provincial. Which is why our political press called Jair Bolsonaro “Brazil’s Trump” and Viktor Orbán “Hungary’s Trump.” They view every election around the world as a proxy battle on whatever Beltway buzz is circling the cubicles this week.

Let’s hear from Meloni herself in the 2019 speech that catapulted her to national fame:

The left hates her because they reflexively denigrate family, faith, and patriotism. All of these are bulwarks against government power, transnational finance, and the NGO-driven international monoculture. That just won’t do. There is no world but one and Klaus Schwab is its prophet.

Meloni disagrees, as do a growing number of voters around the world. Sweden ousted its leftist government two weeks ago. As Vox mewled:

Giorgia Meloni and her far-right Fratelli d’Italia are expected to lead a far-right victory in Italian elections this weekend. That win, if it happens, would come shortly after the far-right Sweden Democrats won the second-largest share of the vote, helping to oust the center-left from power and giving the far-right a potential role in the next government.

The far-right is far-right and that far-right beat the center-left. Booo, far-right.

The left is always characterized as the natural center, while the right lurks on the fringes. The people of Sweden, Italy, Hungary, Poland, and Denmark disagree, but what do they know about Europe compared to an asthmatic spoon-chest filing reports from a Park Slope kombucharie?

The best part of Meloni’s speech was her quoting G.K. Chesterton, a personal favorite. Here’s the full quote, from his book Heretics:

Everything will be denied. Everything will become a creed. It is a reasonable position to deny the stones in the street; it will be a religious dogma to assert them. It is a rational thesis that we are all in a dream; it will be a mystical sanity to say that we are all awake. Fires will be kindled to testify that two and two make four. Swords will be drawn to prove that leaves are green in summer. We shall be left defending, not only the incredible virtues and sanities of human life, but something more incredible still, this huge impossible universe which stares us in the face. We shall fight for visible prodigies as if they were invisible. We shall look on the impossible grass and the skies with a strange courage. We shall be of those who have seen and yet have believed.

Next, they’ll be impugning Chesterton as an extremist. Wait, it’s already begun

Published in Elections, Foreign Policy
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  1. Steve Colombo Coolidge
    Steve Colombo
    @Steve Colombo

    Simply put, inimitable.  And as always most astute. 

    “…from Turin to Taranto.”

    • #1
  2. Percival Thatcher
    Percival
    @Percival

    Jon Gabriel, Ed.: So, their track record is, let’s say, spotty. And provincial.

    And their positions on these politicians are historically ignorant. And shrill. And predictable. And boring. The New York Times is the Washington Post is CBS News is NPR is Mother Jones. And they wonder why their readership/viewership figures are falling off.

    • #2
  3. The Reticulator Member
    The Reticulator
    @TheReticulator

    Howcome they never use “near-right” when they do their name-calling? 

    • #3
  4. Derek Tyburczyk Lincoln
    Derek Tyburczyk
    @Derek Tyburczyk

    True Believers truly despise Heretics. It’s their religion, it’s their faith, it’s their Dogma. Objective reality does not enter into the equation. They are a fringe group that that the media and the government in its current iteration, is giving a larger than life voice, and influence.

    • #4
  5. Percival Thatcher
    Percival
    @Percival

    The Reticulator (View Comment):

    Howcome they never use “near-right” when they do their name-calling?

    Or “far-left?”

    • #5
  6. Henry Castaigne Member
    Henry Castaigne
    @HenryCastaigne

    A long long time ago, Jonah Goldberg was once interesting and he wrote a book called, Tyranny of Cliches. Leftists don’t understand that they have opinions. They think that everything they believe in is entirely reasonable and normal. It’s impossible for them to even understand why conservatives believe in what they believe in.

    • #6
  7. Western Chauvinist Member
    Western Chauvinist
    @WesternChauvinist

    “Fascist” — You keep using that word. . . everyone altogether now!

    • #7
  8. Dave of Barsham Member
    Dave of Barsham
    @LesserSonofBarsham

    Western Chauvinist (View Comment):

    “Fascist” — You keep using that word. . . everyone altogether now!

    • #8
  9. Bryan G. Stephens Thatcher
    Bryan G. Stephens
    @BryanGStephens

    Being against the state is the exact opposite of it. 

    • #9
  10. Western Chauvinist Member
    Western Chauvinist
    @WesternChauvinist

    I definitely can see why the Left is afraid of her. She’s a force!

    • #10
  11. Jim McConnell Member
    Jim McConnell
    @JimMcConnell

    The Reticulator (View Comment):

    Howcome they never use “near-right” when they do their name-calling?

    And “far-left” simply is not in their lexicon; there’s no such term for the MSM.

    • #11
  12. GlennAmurgis Coolidge
    GlennAmurgis
    @GlennAmurgis

    Did corporate media ever call Bernie Sanders “Far Left”? 

     

    • #12
  13. Hang On Member
    Hang On
    @HangOn

    The press is above all else lazy.

    • #13
  14. Front Seat Cat Member
    Front Seat Cat
    @FrontSeatCat

    This seems to be the year of the shake up for all world leaders.  I keep seeing young conservative women winning elections (In Europe).  Thank you for the Chesterton quote and book reference.  We all thought things would calm down after Covid, when in reality, it was just the beginning….

    • #14
  15. Western Chauvinist Member
    Western Chauvinist
    @WesternChauvinist

    Hang On (View Comment):

    The press is above all else lazy.

    Oh, I think you give them too much credit. There’s a lot of contempt and malice in there as well.

    • #15
  16. GlennAmurgis Coolidge
    GlennAmurgis
    @GlennAmurgis

    what is ironic, is the progressive press, Hollywood and the political elite of the 1920s all liked Mussolini

     

     

    • #16
  17. Misthiocracy has never Member
    Misthiocracy has never
    @Misthiocracy

    The Reticulator (View Comment):

    Howcome they never use “near-right” when they do their name-calling?

    Liz Cheney is near-right.

    • #17
  18. GlennAmurgis Coolidge
    GlennAmurgis
    @GlennAmurgis

    Misthiocracy has never (View Comment):

    The Reticulator (View Comment):

    Howcome they never use “near-right” when they do their name-calling?

    Liz Cheney is near-right.

    or Bill Kristol is conditionally right – he will be on the right when you pay him

    • #18
  19. No Caesar Thatcher
    No Caesar
    @NoCaesar

    Wow.  That speech is incredible.  It perfectly encapsulates the battle: messy independence vs directed conformity.   It also rearticulates why the Left hates believers.  If you believe in God, you will not believe in their lies.  

    • #19
  20. No Caesar Thatcher
    No Caesar
    @NoCaesar

    The Reticulator (View Comment):

    Howcome they never use “near-right” when they do their name-calling?

    Well, to be fair, in relation to them, we are far-right.   They are so far off to the Authoritarian Left end of the spectrum.

    • #20
  21. Percival Thatcher
    Percival
    @Percival

    GlennAmurgis (View Comment):

    what is ironic, is the progressive press, Hollywood and the political elite of the 1920s all liked Mussolini

     

     

    You’re the top!
    You’re an Arrow collar.
    You’re the top!
    You’re a Coolidge dollar.
    You’re the nimble tread
    Of the feet of Fred Astaire,
    You’re Mussolini,
    You’re Mrs. Sweeney,
    You’re camembert!

    • #21
  22. shoshido Coolidge
    shoshido
    @shoshido

    I have decidedly mixed feelings about Chesterton. On the plus side, he was a Zionist who supported the establishment of a Jewish home run by Jews, and clearly admired the earthy pioneers who were making that happen. But a significant part of his support was in seeing Zionism as a solution to “the Jewish problem,” which was just a fancy word for English/European bigotry, and a particular distaste for Jews who had materially succeeded despite such bigotry. In that I don’t judge him then as I would judge a similar man with similar views today, since antisemitism was simply the state of things in Europe when he wrote this (1931), and the reason my grandparents and great grandparents had already left that cursed continent. But even then there were those who somehow rose above such bigotry, and he wasn’t one of them.

    • #22
  23. shoshido Coolidge
    shoshido
    @shoshido

     

    • #23
  24. shoshido Coolidge
    shoshido
    @shoshido

    The Reticulator (View Comment):

    Howcome they never use “near-right” when they do their name-calling?

    “Center-Right” is semi-acceptable in that it is a squishy Right that politely loses. “Far-Right” is unacceptable in that it is a confident Right that wins. 

    • #24
  25. shoshido Coolidge
    shoshido
    @shoshido

    GlennAmurgis (View Comment):

    what is ironic, is the progressive press, Hollywood and the political elite of the 1920s all liked Mussolini

    They definitely rewrote that history. Just as they erased the “socialist” from National Socialism (one must only say “Nazi”, as if it’s a word unto itself), and pretend “the parties switched” to deny the Democrats’ Dixiecrat history under Jim Crow. 

    • #25
  26. DrewInWisconsin, Oik Member
    DrewInWisconsin, Oik
    @DrewInWisconsin

    Jon Gabriel, Ed.: Next, they’ll be impugning Chesterton as an extremist. Wait, it’s already begun

    Literally LOL’ed.

    shoshido (View Comment):

    The Reticulator (View Comment):

    Howcome they never use “near-right” when they do their name-calling?

    “Center-Right” is semi-acceptable in that it is a squishy Right that politely loses. “Far-Right” is unacceptable in that it is a confident Right that wins.

    Of course, left and right aren’t really the great divide in the U.S. anyway.

    It’s Ruling Class (left and right) vs. the rest of us (left and right).

    • #26
  27. David Foster Member
    David Foster
    @DavidFoster

    Did Meloni have thuggish supporters beating up the opposition, as did Mussolini?

    Was she a former Socialist, as was Mussolini?

    Did she demand The Total State, as did Mussolini?

    Was she supported by a famous anti-Semitic tech entrepreneur, as was Mussolini?  (re Marconi)

    Seems like there are quite a few differences…

    • #27
  28. EDISONPARKS Member
    EDISONPARKS
    @user_54742

    This is why the term “center right” is a mistake.

    I find it to be a concession to the Left which is tantamount to a conservative begging forgiveness that …. I’m certainly not “far right”.

    Feck the (D)/MSM/Left …. no matter what a conservative says or does the Left will make conservatives and conservative  policies out to be “far right” when it serves the Left’s purposes.

    Never bend the knee to the Left, they’re gonna try and chop your head off either way.

    • #28
  29. DrewInWisconsin, Oik Member
    DrewInWisconsin, Oik
    @DrewInWisconsin

    EDISONPARKS (View Comment):

    This is why the term “center right” is a mistake.

    I find it to be a concession to the Left which is tantamount to a conservative begging forgiveness that …. I’m certainly not “far right”.

    Yep. That’s how I see it, too.

    • #29
  30. Rightfromthestart Coolidge
    Rightfromthestart
    @Rightfromthestart

    They keep saying her party has its roots in fascism, oh roots, I see , you mean like the Democrat Party that has its root in slavery? 

    • #30
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