My poor country

[fpb]

Ever since the shameful collapse of the last Prodi government, in which I had originally invested some hopes, I have taken the view that the best thing that I as a free man can do in the current Italian political situation is to refuse to vote. Voting for Berlusconi was out of the question, and after the Italian left had proved both utterly incapable of getting anything done and sold body and soul - including their "Catholic" figleaves - to the poison of PC, I could not but regard the choice as demeaning. However, the degeneracy of the Berlusconi forces is now so advanced, so shameless, and so terribly damaging in the middle of the world crisis, that I feel forced to admit that anything short of Mussolini or Stalin would be an improvement. But then I am also compelled to remember that there are a few things - abortion, marriage, the death penalty, euthanasia - on which I will not compromise, since I like to be able to look in the mirror in the morning without throwing up; and that, while the death penalty is luckily not an issue in Italy, the left are not only the champions of abortion and "gay marriage", but have made a particular battleground out of euthanasia and actually had a few people killed to score political points. I cannot and will not vote for this, especially, I would underline, the so-called "Catholic" judases kept in exactly to encourage people like me to vote against their consciences. And then there is the the third pole - a centrist, supposedly Catholic party opposing both left and right. You would think that would sound all right, except it is not. First, this party is made out of survivors and nostalgic of the old Christian Democrats, who were a failure and whom most Italians would not like to see back. Second, and typical of why I distrust them, they have been publicly hostile to people who "wantonly rock the boat" on abortion, and it seems they are quite happy with the current status quo on abortion, IVF, euthanasia and so on. Third, in order to become a majority force, they are apparently quite ready to make a deal with Fini's splinter party, which is as progressivist as they come. Some choice. But while I contemplate the political choice with horror, Berlusconi's men are using parliamentary immunity to protect villains among them from the judiciary, and Berlusconi himself is stuffing government, parliament and state legislatures with pretty 20/30 year old ladies who distinguished themselves by nothing except willingness to please in bed. Povera Italia

Comments

[sabethea.livejournal.com]

Have you considered spoiling your ballot paper? In this country, I know that not voting is taken as a sign of apathy, and of all the words I'd use to describe you, apathetic is definitely not one of them. Spoiling your vote so that no one gets voted for but you still get counted, however, is generally seen as more of a political statement. But this may be different in Italy - I am too ignorant to comment on that.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

It's not. But my problem is not so much manifesting my displeasure at the country's political leadership; I've been doing that for the last twenty years. It is that BERLUSCONI HAS TO GO, and I have to find a way to vote against him, but I can't do that without voting for someone who may be marginally less ruinous politically but who is at least as unattractive morally. To me, that is.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes, and the difference with Italy is that in Italy voting is regarded as a civic duty, on a level with paying taxes, and if you abstain, people take notice. IN Britain, and in the USA as well, it is regarded as something you may or may not choose to do, at your pleasure. In Italy, the abstention rate is watched with some care, and people's unwillingness to vote is regarded as bad news, which is why I can send pretty much the same message by abstaining as by spoiling the ballot.

[sabethea.livejournal.com]

Ah yes. *nod* I know in Australia it's a legal as well as civic duty, but from what you say, I think the Italian system sounds best (there may be many things wrong with Italian politics, but the idea that abstaining is a civic message, rather than either illegal or just someone Not Bothering, sounds good to me).

[fpb.livejournal.com]

It used to be actually illegal, but as there never was a penalty - it only got written down somewhere - people just got rid of that. But the idea has remained that voting is a part of the duties of a citizen. I am tempted to say something sarcastic about the way my fellow citizens perform their other duties, but it would be naughty and not entirely correct.