I agree with Scott. According to Todd, everyone on the Right is automatically a Fascist. I believe her campaign theme was “God, family, and country” which most of us (Democrats and Republicans alike) would have supported and taken for granted decades ago. Now, it is somehow extremist to voice such sentiments. Todd, you overuse (and misuse) the word fascist just like others used the accusatory word “anti-Semitic” whenever their argument comes to a dead end. Your biases are showing. Tom
Sent from my iPad
On Sep 25, 2022, at 10:27 PM, SCOTT MCCONNELL via Salon <salon@listserve.com> wrote:
The establishment center left and right created this JV fascism with their immigration policies. If the establishment parties had behaved normally, none of the would be happening. I doubt it’s all that terrible, but we may be in for incompetent government. Doubt it will worse than Biden.
On Sep 25, 2022, at 8:20 PM, Todd Pierce via Salon <salon@listserve.com> wrote:
In any fascist party of this century one must expect to have a few bad apples, such as a member of officer being too indiscreet so that your "true nature” is revealed. But as the Chris Hedges article at the link shared by Chas earlier, and at the bottom here, explains, the “causation” of this is the “liberal” parties own mal-governance, beginning with supporting the US wars which led to the mass migration from the Mideast/Afghanistan (as I was told while in London back in 2015, of the many Afghans who were part of the diaspora) which led to the “radicalization” of so many Europeans, and Americans.
On a related note, given Rod Dreher of The American Conservative magazine zealously supports Meloni, and denounces anyone with the temerity to identify her by her own party identification which has always self-identified as “fascist” in carrying on Mussolini’s legacy, though keeping it ambiguous as much as possible, that is sufficient evidence for me to know her as a fascist, in my opinion :-). And she also self-identifies as a “Christian mother” (does it make any difference if she is an unwed mother to “good” Christians, and Conservatives? Nah, she’s “white.”), so she can’t be a “fascist?"
"I remember when in 2002, not much more than twenty years old, you had to speak in front of an audience of over 5000 people in a congress of the National Alliance. You looked at me as you have done since you were little with your big eyes and you said to me: today I make a fool of you. You were terrified, "she remembers. "Hardly anyone knew you, you were recently the president of the party's youth.”
Here is how that party whom Giorgia Meloni was "the president of the party's youth” is accurately described:
BLUF: "The AN is the successor party of the old MSI (Movimento Sociale Italiano), a neo-fascist party. Under the leadership of Gianfranco Fini the MSI renamed to AN in 1994 (including other forces of the right), and has struggled to be accepted as a modern right-conservative party rather than a neo-fascist party.”
I suspect that if someone had told the young “Christian,” Giorgia that she didn’t qualify as a fascist, in a party only 7 years removed from its full fascist identity, she might have gotten upset for her fascist “cred” being challenged.
And, Meloni has long identified with the Israeli Right, not surprisingly, and seems to have been endorsed by Israel Hayom, the Adelson rag:
Italy's frontrunner party suspends candidate over Hitler praise
jc/jd20.09.2022, 12:24
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Photo: Ivan Romano/Getty Images
Brothers of Italy was set up after World War II. Its leader Giorgia Meloni, expected to be Italy's next prime minister, has looked to distance herself from the far-right and says her party is mainstream conservative.
La Repubblica, a moderate left wing newspaper, known for its critical stance towards right wing Italian politicians, published a social media comment this week that was posted eight years ago by party candidate Calogero Pisano, hailing Hitler as a “great statesman”.
Pisano, who was standing for election on the island of Sicily, also in a 2016 post praised someone for defining Ms Meloni as a “modern fascist”, writing that Fdl had “never hidden its true ideals”.
Responding to the controversy, Brothers of Italy said it was suspending Pisano with immediate effect. “From this moment on, Pisano no longer represents (the party) at any level,” it said in a statement.
Pisano himself clarified: “Years ago, I wrote things that were profoundly wrong,” he said on Facebook, adding that he had removed the posts some time ago.
The Fdl identifies ideologically with radical conservatism, nationalism, nativism, and opposition to immigration. At the European-level, FdI is a member of the European Conservatives and Reformists Party, of which Ms Meloni has served as president since September 2020.
Ms Meloni has stated that FdI proposes a “confederal Europe of nations” as opposed to a federal Europe.
Brothers of Italy is widely expected to emerge as Italy's largest single party at the September 25 vote and lead an alliance of right-wing parties to a comfortable victory.
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