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For the same reason that Hoover would have had a fair chance of winning in the summer of 1930, had there been an election then and not in 1932.

We haven't seen 20 % real unemployment in Europe yet. When we do (and we will if we keep electing far-right lunatics), there'll be a landslide. Either to the left or to the even farther right.

Our job is to make sure that the neo-Nazis (whatever their guises) are whacked rather firmly over the head whenever they show up. As long as we can do that - and keep doing that - things'll break our way eventually.

- Jake

Friends come and go. Enemies accumulate.

by JakeS (JangoSierra 'at' gmail 'dot' com) on Sun Sep 27th, 2009 at 04:32:43 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Sadly, I failed that...

*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.
by DoDo on Sun Sep 27th, 2009 at 04:49:50 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Where there is life there is hope. They haven't taken over the apparatus of the state yet, have they?

And there's always the option of federal intervention if a country goes Mississippi Burning on us. So we have a backstop in the EU that we didn't have the last time around. We don't yet know how effective that backstop would be, and I'd rather we never had to learn, but it's nice to have it all the same.

- Jake

Friends come and go. Enemies accumulate.

by JakeS (JangoSierra 'at' gmail 'dot' com) on Sun Sep 27th, 2009 at 05:04:32 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Um, how about italy?

En un viejo país ineficiente, algo así como España entre dos guerras civiles, poseer una casa y poca hacienda y memoria ninguna. -- Gil de Biedma
by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Sun Sep 27th, 2009 at 05:06:20 PM EST
[ Parent ]
That's not a state, it's non-consensual performance art.
by ThatBritGuy (thatbritguy (at) googlemail.com) on Sun Sep 27th, 2009 at 05:16:38 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Sounds like statutory rape...

En un viejo país ineficiente, algo así como España entre dos guerras civiles, poseer una casa y poca hacienda y memoria ninguna. -- Gil de Biedma
by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Sun Sep 27th, 2009 at 05:45:22 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Italy is... well, Italy.

Still, much as I find Corruptioni scary, I think he's more of a mafiosi than a brownshirt. He does not strike me as someone who is bent on making a revolution.

Most importantly (mafia connections aside), he doesn't seem to have a cadre of organised, violent thugs as part of his party machinery. And that's really the distinguishing characteristic of fascism, as opposed to general xenophobic far-right, anti-people, pro-fatcat assholes like Corruptioni.

Plus, while Corruptioni may be hard on the Italian people, he's not going to seriously export his racket to the rest of Europe; I wouldn't trust his gang to organise a drinking party in a distillery, nevermind stage a continent-wide revolution. Le Pen and Jobbik, OTOH, are just barely bright enough that they might be able to do that.

- Jake

Friends come and go. Enemies accumulate.

by JakeS (JangoSierra 'at' gmail 'dot' com) on Sun Sep 27th, 2009 at 05:22:18 PM EST
[ Parent ]

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