As per the Italian vote, party politics, as we know it, is dead unfortunately. I say unfortunately for democracy, because the people being voted for aren't the ones holding the real power: its’ all international finance, the banks, the IMF, and so forth, yet nobody votes for them. No more is this the case than with nations like Italy placed underfoot by the speculators of big finance. In Italy, furethermore, one also has to take into consideration the various criminal organizations, which hold entire regions and from which practically none are completely uneffected. Yet with all the mantras calling for austerity measures by the guru of finance Monti, few words were spent on seriously destroying the mafias, which rob from the state some 30 billion anually in unpaid taxes and are estimated to generate up to a third of Italy's GNP. This is why I'm difident before one such as he and wonder about the sanity of the banks and markets.
Politics (on the planetary level) didn't know how to manage globalization, but under the neoliberal impetus allowed the markets to dictate policy. By contrast it was the markets that needed to be regulated and have a political class (again at the global level) provide rules to a game few actually profit from, but to which everyone's destiny is bound. No more is this the case than today for nations like Italy, Greece, Spain and so forth.
This though would have required a coordinated effort, beyond myopic self-interest and a willfully circumscribed vision, one unconstrained by the usual determinants of domestic policy and international competition: in short, an international legislation that meets the needs and praxis of a global economy in the broadest social interests.
Obviously this is stuff of a visionary and futuristic nature, which can hardly even be contemplated, let alone realized, in today's world. In the meantime, therefore, we get the erosion of democracy in favor of technocratic solutions (here Mario Monti comes immediately to mind) propelled by the great financial institutions to meet the demands they (not voters) place on society and the State. It’s within this spectrum that the Italian election is colored by an increasing disillusionment with the traditional political parties and is at once so rife with demagoguery. This also explains how so many can be enticed by the latest Cola di Rienzo of the piazzas, Bepe Grillo. All I can say is that if Berlusconi wins again, I will seriously consider leaving, whereas if Grillo wins the country is ****ed; because the comedian from Genova is excellent at telling the system and its political figure heads to ****-off (Vaffa!), as he ceaselessly yells in the mike before the sizable gatherings, though not so bravo when it comes to realistically articluating a reform program of actual substance. He has such a facile capacity to denounce and deride; though one wonders, once in power, how Mr. Grillo plans to govern: which is to say through the same political alliances and politicking he so vocally condemns, but that such a situation unavoidably demands. The moment he were to have to actually govern, would be the moment his house of cards comes crashing down. I can’t understand why this isn’t obvious to all his supporters. Besides he has the air of one that doesn't allow for discent, refuses to engage directly his political opponents in real democratic debate, whereas from the safety of the public stage launches his anathemas like so many a dictator we have seen in the past. Not surprisingly, Grillo isn't viewed with hostility by Italian fascists and those whose worldview is colored with neofascist sentiments, like so many football fans (ultras) of the stadium's various northern curves.
Now the fact that my girlfriend's mom will vote for that Pied Piper and indefatigable liar, Berlusconi (sic!) and that her brother and sister-in-law are diehard Grillo fans (in this showman's case "supporter" isn't really the proper term), is another indication of the opinion I read in yesterday's newspaper that half the voting population here are imbeciles. Unfortunately the only viable options are the neoliberal, Monti (earstwhile techoncrat) and the center-left Bersani, who, however, wouldn't have the numbers in parliament and the senate to govern, which effectively means he would fall within months. Plus he's not attractive to the markets, nor Merkel by some accounts.
The markets want Monti, though he has little hope of winning and even if he did would need to form a coalition that includes two center-right parties, Fini and Casini, and Bersani on the left, the antagonism between right and left in Italy making this an impossible mission.
Conclusion: uno schifo!
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