Don’t let the right build an “electoral autocracy”

Good advice in Italy; good advice in the U.S.

For those wondering what is up with Italy after it elected as its first female prime minister Giorgia Meloni of Brothers of Italy, a far-right party directly descended from Benito Mussolini’s fascist regime (New York Times):

This is, to put it mildly, concerning. Yet the most pervasive worry is not that Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party will reinstitute fascism in Italy — whatever that would mean. It’s that a government led by her will transform Italy into an “electoral autocracy,” along the lines of Viktor Orban’s Hungary. During the campaign, the center-left Democratic Party — Brothers of Italy’s main opponent — obsessively invoked Hungary as Italy’s destiny under Ms. Meloni’s rule. The contest, they repeated, was one between democracy and authoritarianism.

Given the instability of Italian governments, Meloni might not last long. Still….

This was never purely a US crisis. This is a transnational operation by an axis of autocrats and their backers. In their formulation, the United States is cog in the machine, at best. To many, it is more useful broken down and sold for parts.

— Sarah Kendzior (@sarahkendzior) September 26, 2022

Medhi Hasan offers some background on Brothers of Italy via Ruth Ben Ghiat, author of “Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present.”

Meloni’s self-branding as conservative is marketing, Ben Ghiat suggests. She leads a far-right, authoritarian party like the GOP, both part of “a transnational, new-fascist connection and world…. That’s a big deal.” They are trying to “pull the wool over people’s eyes” trying to sell this as conservatism.

Marina Archer, a sociologist/researcher/life coach with a PhD in social psychology, posted a short thread on how the minority Brothers of Italy was able to win control through a combination of progressive complacency and barriers to voting. Comparisons to U.S. gerrymandering and GOP-passed election barricades are obvious.

when there was no REAL opposition and in the end so-called progressives colluded with B in many ways. The system is very corrupt. Many young people did not vote because they "did not like any of the options." They do not get that the least worst actually still exists. /2

— Dr. Marina Archer (@DrMarinaArcher) September 26, 2022

the Italians who did NOT vote for the R coalition. They are MORE than @ 42% but they did not band together.
4) So because of terrible elections laws the R coalition that gets @ 42% takes 2/3 of the entire Parliament. That 42% represents ONLY @ 26% of Italians. /4

— Dr. Marina Archer (@DrMarinaArcher) September 26, 2022

6) So when you read the headlines know that the Italian situation is much more complex than what those headlines say – and that years of corruption and complacency led to this. So VOTE, everyone here VOTE if you don't want a minority or relative majority decide your life./6 end

— Dr. Marina Archer (@DrMarinaArcher) September 26, 2022

“So VOTE, everyone here VOTE if you don’t want a minority or relative majority decide your life,” Archer concludes.

Good advice.

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