For those who did not grow up like me in Berlusconi's Italy, he was an interesting character and in many ways a precursor of today's politics. When Trump came to rise, I felt many aspects were similar: both very rich entrepreneurs, arrogant personalities, a tendency to go against well established rules, personal attacks on opponents, an admiration for strongmen (Berlusconi had a clear crush on Putin), tax creativity, laws purposefully written for himself and his friends, and of course exploiting partisan news outlets. Berlusconi's career took a turn when he developed Mediaset to be a large TV company that could compete with national public TV, and still does, while offering a load of trash to the public. He was many times under investigation, sometimes convicted without ever going to jail, and many times exploiting the statute of limitations to avoid conviction by dragging the trial along for years.
His party was essentially founded upon him and his personality, and is currently one of the parties in the government coalition, with a relatively minor share, I expect voted by older people nostalgic of his era. We will not miss him -- but in hindsight we have seen even worse characters in the last 10 years.
You could argue that the rise of Trump is not really anything new; Italy has had Berlusconi in politics since the early 90ies, and there are a lot of similarities:
Italy's Berlusconi won elections multiple times in 1996-2010 despite acting like a fool.
He is probably Trump's closest equivalent in any Western country over the past decades: large personal fortune, mishmash populist agenda, media obsession, self-branding as an outsider who dares speak the truth... And Berlusconi's legacy is not much to celebrate. Italy is objectively worse off compared to its peers than it was 20 years ago. Winning elections doesn't mean anything on its own, but Trump is still in campaigning mode.
A couple of comments. Firstly, I strongly advise you to look at the repeated rise and decline of Silvio Berlusconi. I think Trump's awfully similar to Mr. Berlusconi in many ways, including some of the circumstances that caused Italians to elect him. Italian machismo has a different face than American machismo, but it's kind of the same. Mr. Berlusconi was not politically correct. The net result was a pretty poor PM... beyond scandals and giggle-worthy headlines, there really wasn't much policy advancement, unless it empowered Berlusconi's personal fortunes. He also was a leader that was not respected by the EU in any way, not a terribly good deal in this global world. The economy ended up stalled (Berlusconi fixed none of Italy's business structural problems)
Mr. Berlusconi was also anti-immigrant, similar to Trump (actually not quite as coarse, but no matter). It didn't matter much one way or another, frankly. I get the impression today's Italians don't look quite that fondly on that era.
I get that some of the above (the EU / global part) is part of the reason for things like Berlusconi, Trump, Brexit, etc. I also think, ironically, that any economic impact (which in some cases is big) might disproportionately affect many who vote for such things. Talent / company "brain drains" happened under Berlusconi, and it looks like the same will happen under Brexit. Those that can are more likely to move wherever the jobs and opportunities are. Those that can't end up in a not quite so enriched country. This really isn't a solution for the globalization / technology inequality problem. It might exaggerate it for all I know.
The second: Since 9/11, only two general classifications of terrorists have actually committed mass murder in America. The first is Islamic terrorists. The second is right-wing terrorists (right-wing as in: white supremacists, anti-semitism , militia types, anti-abortion advocates). Don't get me wrong -- the far left-wing certainly is capable of violence, the clashes at the Trump rallies are deplorable, and there have been murderous radical left terrorists in the past. But these days, I consider right-wing white supremacists in particular the most "likely to commit terrorism" category next to radical Islamists. I don't know of a left wing incident recently where a church was mass-shot; white supremacists have mass-shot two churches this decade.
It, of course, is not fair to use these right-wing white supremacists as a generalization of conservatives (as it would be the other way, as you say). But Donald Trump's unashamed nativism, macho authoritarianism, and identity politics does make me worry a bit whether this will encourage more white supremacists terrorism in the future. We'll see, I guess.
>> Berlusconi was really a man of equal opportunities
>That's a bit romantic.
To be clear, my description was very much tongue in cheek. The man had no discernable sense of morals. He very brazenly allied to whomever he needed to further his interests. For example he was always very friendly with Putin and I wouldn't be surprised if a Russian exile was always an open option if things went south at home.
The way things are in Berlusconi's Italy, I would not be surprised if this case is being kept alive by his friends to benefit his media companies which are undoubtedly pissed off at youtube.
Imagine if Rupert Murdoch became president of the US. That is, in a nutshell, the situation with Berluscony and Italy.
> And the italian equivalent of 'joe the plumber' isn't that much of a good person either.
What? Joe the Plumber was a right-wing patsy who was nothing more than an agent for the GOP to help sell some kind of bullshit "I'm overtaxed by democracts" disingenious message in an especially corrupt election season known for Sarah Palin running as VP and GOP regulars going to debates and asking what McCain will do about Obama hiding the fact that he's a secret Muslim. Is he a hero to Italians? If anything, he would be cheering Berlusconi on.
I get the picture very much, having lived in Italy on and off over the past 15 years. You can say what you want about Berlusconi (and I regularly do), but you can't lay all the blame at his feet, either. Romano Prodi managed to beat him twice at the polls, despite all his media power. Those people are arguing for that decision with their own twisted logic and of their own volition.
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2017/04/the-similarities...
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