The worst of an extremely bad bunch have won

[fpb]

I have refused to vote in the Italian elections, holding that none of the candidates on offer were worthy of even reluctant consent by a free man. Or by anybody free to choose. To have to choose between supporting Veltroni, Berlusconi or the lesser lists is a choice that demeans a human being, and I will not make it. Until the Italian political

Comments

[stigandnasty919]

I hope you do not mind, but I fully intend to steal your opening paragraph to explain why I have refused to vote in all but one Northern Ireland election in the years since I passed the age of 18.

Rather more poetic than my previous excuse (also stolen, but this time from Billy Connolly)

"Don't vote, it only encourages them!"

[fpb]

Ummm, considering that the British establishment only offers the choice between Gordon Brown and David Cameron...

[stigandnasty919]

And then there is America. I think I see a trend developing.

Democracy really is the worst system possible - apart from all the others on offer......

[fpb]

Actually, I would say that Obama and McCain are both interesting and impressive people. I oppose most of what Obama stands for, but he does come across as a fine and thoughtful speaker. The last election was dreadful - Kerry and Bush II were probably the worst candidates either party could have chosen - but this one has thrown up a rather better bunch of candidates.

[jamesenge]

Do you think the dramatic decrease in the number of political parties is going to have some long-term effect?

[fpb]

Hard to tell. The decrease took place mainly on the left, and may be explained at least in part as the rage of left-wing voters against their representatives who, with their endless bickering and egotism, brought down their own government and let the Ogre in. On the other hand, a centrist CAtholic movement has survived, and may well be the gainer if Berlusconi honks off his considerable Catholic support. What is certain is that Berlusconi has a firm majority. So this time he will have no excuses or scapegoats, and he knows it.

[fpb]

This is a photo which his people have placed on the website of his newspaper to celebrate his victory. Have a look:

[facetiousness ahead]

[patchworkmind]

Stop mincing words. What do you really think.

[/facetiousness]

Re: [facetiousness ahead]

[fpb]

Well, look at that face, upthread. Does it not call for certain kinds of description?

[johncwright]

"... one of the lessons of the last two years is that you cannot govern Italy without Catholic support."

Would that it were this way in my nation. America is basically Protestant, and so one of the only places you can go to hear common sense and Natural Law on every topic from embryo research to contraception expounded from the pulpit, is from a Catholic Church. I wonder if putting the relics of saints in the altars shed some sort of beneficial aura to keep folly at bay.

The Holy Father is coming to Northern Virginia this week. My priest, father Holmes, is going to attend mass with Benedict! My brush with greatness.

[fpb]

Nonetheless, the US and Italy are more like each other in this matter than either of them is like, say, Britain. Britons, who have been socialized from the schoolyard if not the cradle to hate and fear "organized religion" - and not to think of it in any serious way, either - are apt to sneer at the spectacle of left-wing politicians such as Obama and Hillary seriously discussing their own religious experience and views with religious leaders. In Britain, an apparently genuine Christian like Blair had to conceal his faith and vote as if it did not exist, in order to make a career; and his chief ally, Brown, the current prime minister, is a sworn enemy of Christianity who has taken to the cause of atheism the grim moral purpose and Manichean Calvinist attitudes of his Presbyterian ancestors. In France, there has been positive scandal in some quarters when Sarkozy, as a presidential candidate, dared to speak positively of the Church... It is not that Europeans have no religion, it is that the have been positively robbed of it by

[stigandnasty919]

I'm interested in this comment of yours Fabio. It doesn't refer to a Britain I recognise. I would say that any conditioning that I received as a child in terms of religion was most certainly in favour of the church, and the Christian church at that. And that is certainly the case in my daughter's school today. What exactly are you referring to

[fpb]

I am rather surprised that you should challenge me on this matter. Surely you are aware that your experience is scarcely typical of the British state at large. You were raised, so to speak, in an Indian reservation, where practices and attitudes that had been laughed or legislated out of existence in the mainland were allowed to continue for a number of reasons. (Foremost among which being that both "communities" inflicted on the British government and on each other the same kind of "respect" that extreme Muslims have lately been achieving.) I do not have the time to argue this in more depth, although I realize that sooner or later I will, but let me tell you that once you have seen your English friend look around herself and actually drop her voice, as if imparting a dangerous or shameful secret, before she tells you that, yes, she is a Christian, you would not forget it in a hurry. In Italy and in America, the assumption is that being a Christian (or, as we say, credente, a believer) tends to make you a better person; raises