Italian Voters Rival Americans For Political Stupidity

Silvio Berlusconi, the three-time Italian prime minister, billionaire playboy and perpetual criminal defendant who was all but counted out of Italian political life when a debt crisis forced his resignation in 2011, shocked the country Monday by shooting back into a position of influence.

Even by the chaotic standards of Italian politics, the resurgence of Berlusconi’s People of Liberty party, which seems to be in contention to win the most seats in the Italian Senate, along with the astonishingly strong showing of a naysaying protest party led by Beppe
Grillo, a seething ex-comedian opposed to the euro, has cast the Italian government into confusion.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world...f067e0-7f8c-11e2-a350-49866afab584_print.html

 

Actually, Italian voters far outstrip American voters in terms of intelligence. When they voted for Berlusconi and Grillo's parties, they did so not because of the social inept behavior of said individuals, but because those two offered the ONLY choices of throwing out the EU politicians and Banking Cartel that has sought to enslave them and their country to the whims of Brussels and German Politicians.

They, like Iceland before them, gave the middle finger to the cartel and said "no thanks, we'll go at it on our own." And like Iceland before them, if they can pull it off and get out of the EU alive, they will return to economic stability and growth.

 

I'm not embarrassed to have Italian blood.

I sure as hell wouldn't want to be living in Italy, however.

I have an idea why my Grand Father came here after seeing for myself what a mess has become of HIS Country.

 

Sadly, your grand kids will be saying the same thing...just substitute America for Italy.

All compliments of political correctness, affirmative action, and unions bankrupting the country.

 

It's too bad there isn't a NEW America somewhere in the World. I think we are going to have to take back this one. There will probably never be another country on this planet like the first 200 years of the USA.

This country was blessed with a lot of men who put God, word and honor above all else. Not very many anymore.

 

You killed millions of Indians dude

 

I agree. I give the Italian voters a lot of credit. Basically they are saying they aren't going to take orders from the fucking germans and french. Of course, there will be consequences, but are they really worse than basically forfeiting your country's sovereignty?

A few years from now when we're in this same situation, will we be kowtowing to the chinese or will we have enough testosterone to tell them to fuck off?

 

Although I see a problem with any votes for Berlusconi, this seems to be the consenses thought of the election and a desire to scrap austerity and the Euro kings.

Italians voted against all kinds of stuff – corruption, lack of transparency, inefficient bureaucracy – and it would be a mistake to lump the anti-austerity forces together into some generic protest vote. But if you sit in Brussels or Berlin and wanted to see a pro-reform, pro-fiscal discipline government, you have just been dealt two major blows.

First, almost 60 per cent of Italians voted for parties that explicitly oppose austerity, whether EU-mandated or otherwise.

Second, the Five-Star Movement led by Grillo received over 25 per cent of the vote, thanks to innovative, social media campaigning (including recruiting candidates via an online survey). Grillo has been critical of the euro, and called for a referendum on whether Italy should leave the single currency and default on some of its debt. This is the opposite of what Brussels wants.

Meanwhile Monti, the outgoing Prime Minister who led a technocratic, pro-Brussels government over the past year or so, got just over 10 per cent of votes. Grillo’s party will hold roughly twice as many seats in the lower house. Or, put differently: a Yale-educated former European commissioner and adviser to Goldman Sachs was hammered at the polls by a former comedian. This is a major wake-up call for establishment politics in Italy and elsewhere. But the results are also a major blow for the Brussels cash-for-austerity consensus.

http://www.cityam.com/article/nightmare-brussels-italians-vote-reject-austerity-consensus

 

In US terms, this would be like the last presidential election featured as candidates Obama, George W. Bush and Roseanne Barr. And Obama ended up with 10 % of the vote.

You can understand why the Big Thinkers in europe are upset, but you can also understand how pissed the voters were. How exactly are they so much worse off if they ditch the euro, default on their debt and start over? Russia basically did the same thing in the 1990's. All of latin america did it in the 80's.