With the Italian general election a few days away The New York Times is definitely gunning for the Five Star Movement (M5S). Yesterday it was "The Mystery Man Who Runs Italy’s ‘Five Star’ From the Shadows." Today it is "Will Russia Meddle in Italy’s Election? It May Not Have To." Both are written by Jason Horowitz, the Rome bureau chief, who is a journalistic hit man specializing in tabloid smears. He held the "Get Bernie" portfolio in 2016. After Sunday, The Times will probably send Horowitz to the next election hot spot so he can peddle his fictions and innuendo.
Horowitz is tarring M5S as corrupt, opaque and a Russian cutout; the young people who are the base of the party's support, shameful dupes, much like the kids who swelled Bernie's ranks.
It is fascinating to bear witness to the propaganda organs of the Democratic center as it implodes. The only argument on offer is an omniscient Russian meddling. There is never any substantive discussion of why the Socialists in France, why the SPD in Germany, why Matteo Renzi's Democratic Party in Italy are performing worse than ever before. The only reason given is the evil Putin somehow pulling strings from the Kremlin. Call it the present-day version of the stab-in-the-back myth.
It is the same in the United States. When you talk to a stalwart Democratic she will talk first of Russian meddling. There is no positive vision of the future. Even "Medicare For All" is dismissed with the exasperated question, "Well, who is going to pay for it?"
The Democratic center, mainstream neoliberalism, is at its end. What comes next -- unless new parties like M5S or a Momentum-captured Labour catch on -- is fascism.
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