Rorate Caeli

Socci: From Siena to New York ( through Rome, London and Brussels ) the collapse of the Left - a historical shock

Antonio Socci
Libero Quotidiano
July 3, 2018
Amid the cheerful, colorful streets of Siena, in festivity for “Il Palio della Madonna di Provenzano”, and a week following the electoral tsunami, some of the city’s leftist big-wheels and intellectuals wander around like they are lost;  questioned by national newspapers, they admit they are  “in shock” and bewildered at the collapse of their ‘red sovereignty’ which had lasted for a period of 70 years.                                                                                                                                                      

Even in other major Tuscan cities the Democratic Party (PD) has become the acronym for “Loses Everywhere”. And it can’t even blame the elusive Russian Hacker for its defeat in Massa, Pisa and Siena (MPS) after having lost the other Tuscan towns.

The exponents of the left drift around like ghosts on the pages of the newspapers unable to come to terms [with what has happened]. They find it baffling that the electors “fired” them - “the best”, the most civilized, the most enlightened - and in their place chose the nasty ones - the barbarians,.

So, even if they are tearing each other apart in internal fighting, they make no attempt at self-criticism (even the “Monte dei Paschi”  affair– if you listen to them – was the fault of “others”).

Tuscany was the last ‘red empire’ in Europe. It collapsed as a result of the breath of fresh air from a population grown weary  of a Left which had made a mess of everything and had forgotten the needs and suffering of  ordinary people who finally sent them packing!

It was a Pci (Communist Party) that had transformed itself into a ‘politically correct’ establishment and continued to dominate the Tuscan territory with its suffocating block of power. But in its slick public image, for years now, it had replaced its love for the USSR and “true socialism” with a psychological and political subjection towards an unreal America: The White House of Clinton and Obama, the markets and the European technocracy.

Today, in “progressive”  circles from Siena and Pisa to New York, through to Rome, London, Paris, Berlin and Brussels the same shock and bewilderment reigns.

They are all asking: how is it possible that the barbarians won? Why did the people choose the “uncivilized”, over us, who are – by definition  - “civilization itself” and the light of the world?

In the wealthy Manhattan penthouses – those immortalized by Tom Wolfe as the “radical chic” , they are still wondering why the Americans voted for Trump the Monster and how amazingly he is still in the saddle (sustained by a growing consensus).

In the London tea-houses they  are still wondering even today how on earth it was possible that the British ‘plebs’ were allowed to win Brexit.

Meanwhile, on the Roman terraces, in shock  after the devastation of March 4th,, they  are struck with horror at seeing Salvini, The Barbarian, who  has won the government and the growing consensus of the Italians.

These elite are hardly able to hide their contemptuous discontent behind their bewilderment.  It is not by accident – after Brexit and Trump – that some of these [so-called] enlightened have even begun to question universal suffrage.

Being unable – at least for the moment – to impose a government of the elite which abolishes democracy  (even if they had already imposed technocratic governments in Italy or governments remote-controlled by the troika elsewhere) they are attempting to muzzle the Net which they can’t control. But it’s precisely the Net that has enabled people to climb over the lead-wall of the mass-media, always on the side of the elite.

The establishment now feel like they are being besieged by the populists: in the White House there is the World Head of barbaric populism. In the Kremlin the oriental- face of populism has won hands down.

Then they see all of Eastern Europe immersed in populism, including Austria (they cite “the Visegrad countries) with the disgust that they should have - and don’t have  - towards certain dictatorships.  In Great Britain the Brexit populists won.

It’s comical to see the Italian Left desperately clinging to Macron and Merkel who are certainly not of the Left.  Even more so since in France Macron, who won with minority percentages, has many serious problems. And in Germany Merkel – who was already limping from the elections –is now being destabilized by the Bavarians in her party, also populists.
In the European Union – the last hold-out of the elite – the so-called populists have the wind in their favour and at the European elections next spring are aiming for victory.

In the prevailing narration of today’s mass-media, you become populist if you listen to the people (with their needs) rather than obey the elite. The Left in Italy has in its DNA the habit of degrading and “branding” its opponents: fascist, racist and populist.  

Since as Luca Ricolfi* observes, those of the Left are convinced “they represent the best part of the country, of being ethically, culturally and politically superior” and “see the opposing party as barbarians to educate or keep at the doors, underestimating even their good reasons”.

They will never acknowledge their errors. In America as in Italy,  seeing as they no longer have the people [on their side] and having seen the uselessness of their monopoly of the mass-media, they are hoping in some overturning of power caused by the Deep State, the judiciary, the European Central Bank, the markets or the European Union.

So that they can award themselves a hypothetical victory after having lost in the field.
*an Italian sociologist and writer.
Translation:  contributor Francesca Romana