a Excerpt from the 2019 speech New Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni posted it on Twitter this week.
In case you missed it, Meloni claims (according to the translation) that “everything that distinguishes us is now an enemy.” “They” attack “national identity,” “religious identity,” “gender identity,” and “family identity,” she adds. (It sure looks like that to me house of noir Right, identity policies.)
Then Meloni says “they” want to turn it into a number, because “when I’m a number, I no longer have any identity or roots.” This process, she says, is done to make her “the perfect slave at the mercy of the financial speculators – the perfect consumer.”
I don’t pretend to be an expert on Italian politics, but I don’t have to be. There are common themes between this and what we see on the national right in the good old USA. For this reason (among other things), it should come as no surprise that Meloni’s speech was widely praised by the American right.
“Do we have a single American politician who is able to speak such words with such force and conviction?” Conservative writer Rod Dreherr asked. “I can’t think of one. Giorgia Meloni has more balls than a Congress full of Republicans.”
The front pages of Italian newspapers after Giorgia Meloni’s party took the lead in the general election.
Vincenzo Pinto/AFP via Getty
This kind of praise has generated a lot of controversy, but I think Meloni’s words offer some clues to those of us who hope to understand (and refute) the radical right in America.
As Meloni’s speech makes clear, the Right believes that traditional culture is under attack. And let’s be honest he is.
The left has always been the aggressor in culture wars. Let’s take same-sex marriage, for example. Although one of its early intellectual heroes was gay conservative writer Andrew Sullivan, same-sex marriage is now Popular even among RepublicansIt was a shocking change for many religious Americans.
Since we are talking about shocks to political and social systems, it is worth asking: Is it a complete coincidence that the timing of Aubergeville The Supreme Court’s decision to legalize same-sex marriage coincided with the rise of Donald Trump specially In the summer of 2015?
Can.
But if same-sex marriage did not lead to extremism in the religious right, what do you think happened when the next frontier, trans rights, immediately became a cause of du jour? Meloni’s comments about the assault on “gender identity” clearly fit this title. And while people who fight for their civil rights don’t want to wait for society to catch up, many of the social norms surrounding sex and sexuality have faded so quickly – and the new rules have been so aggressively enforced – that many people have simply refused.”evolve in this case. “
Next, Meloni talks about loss of identity and “roots”. Once again, intellectually honest Americans can sympathize with this concern. Do you think the left attempts Thomas Jefferson statues removed or Rename the schools named after Abraham Lincoln Perhaps he contributes – at least a little – to this reaction?
You might be thinking: “Why can’t these reactionaries ever fit in with the times? Don’t they want to live in a fun cosmopolitan world where everything goes? Things here are very good. We have flat screen TVs. You can let the eccentric flag fly and have fun.”
Yes, but while liberal modernity offers us great peace and prosperity, it does not offer what many people long for: purpose, meaning, tradition, and romance.
I recommend This is from George Orwell: “Whereas socialism, and even capitalism in a more reluctant manner, told the people ‘I offer you a good time,’ Hitler said to them ‘I offer you struggle and danger and death,’ and as a result an entire nation is throwing itself at his feet.”
As a conservative who values individual rights and family values, I admit that I have been as blind as anyone else to the extent to which this hunger for meaning and purpose has spread.
Maybe that’s because I already have. I have a satisfying job. I go to church every week. I have a wife and children. I have lunch with my mom once a week. I coached the Little League team. I do not look to government for superlative purpose or meaning. But here’s the thing: an astonishing number of Americans be.
Of course, every root cause needs a good bogeyman. So, who is responsible for the loss of purpose and meaning in modern life?
It is worth noting that Orwell does not regret it liberal democracy It does not present a romantic conflict; say that capitalism no. Which brings us to the next point: Meloni claims that her stripping of her identity makes her “the perfect slave at the mercy of financial speculators – the perfect consumer.”
This sounds like a conspiracy theory to me (that borders on an anti-Semitic trope) and seems to blame corporations for the world’s problems – once outside the confines of the American right, but now very popular with right-wing populists like Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Those of us outside the populist right tend to either fear or ridicule politicians like Meloni, but combating this right-wing nationalist sentiment requires examining why it is so appealing. Studying it means opening up to the possibility that we are, in some ways, contributing to its rise.
When it comes to the abolition of culture, awaken capitalism, tear down statues of the founding fathers, and have another “conversation” about Atlanta Braves change their nameor insisting that people use the pronoun “Z,” perhaps progressives should hit the brakes — or at least choose their cultural battles more wisely.
Meanwhile, those who want to preserve the republic will have to find a way to make liberal democracy look cool, romantic and revolutionary again.
Doing so will require a strong will and a sense of humility – and cultural patience – which I’m not sure exists in America these days. And that’s pretty much the problem.
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