Commies, Greenies: Listen Up!

Here's the Yeahhhh Baby! follow-up to Monday's story about Silvio Berlusconi's big win in the Italian elections, courtesy of The Corner:

The big news is that the Communists are gone, for the first time since the end of the Second World War. Really gone. They didn't win a single seat in either chamber. A lot of famous faces will vanish from Parliament, and it is even possible, although unlikely, that some of the comrades will be forced to join the working class.

But wait, there's more:

The Greens are also gone.

Italy has been a political basket case for so long it's hard to get one's mind about the concept of an Italian legislature with only six political parties, with the most destabilizing and dangerous of them being shown the door.

What's going on?

All human group behavior is dynamic, a pendulum. While an individual may well be stupid forever, societies cannot be for the reason that the group has memory and intelligence.

The more erratic the group, the shorter the arc of its pendulum swing. The modern Italian Commies lasted about 60 years, the Greens just a couple decades. Both predicted things that didn't come true; both had chances to make effective policy but couldn't, and now they're gone. I'd say "for good," but I'm writing about pendulums here.

There's hope pouring over the transom from Italy tonight. Much of what was making Italy nearly unlivable is gone from Italian politics, and I think that all that is destroying America has already reached the farthest point of its swing, and is now sliding into its own oblivion.

hat-tip: Urgent Agenda

That Dreaded Bush Is Turning Off The World -- Not

Italians appear to not be so turned off by George Bush that they're rejecting conservatism:

ROME (WSJ) -- Conservative leader Silvio Berlusconi appeared to clinch Italy's national election Monday, making it likely that the media mogul will return as prime minister for a third time.

Mr. Berlusconi's center-right Freedom People party was set to get 164 seats in the upper house of parliament, the senate, while the Democratic Party of center-left rival Walter Veltroni was expected to win 139 seats, early projections showed.

In other words, the Bush-like conservatives dominated and the Reid-Pelosi, Obama-Clinton types got seriously hosed.

Before you say there's no comparison, let me humbly point out that there most certainly is. In Italy, the main issue was the economy, as it is here. Berlusconi's Freedom Party supports tax cuts and spending cuts. The Democratic Party supports ... well, you guess what they support.

It seems like sensible Europeans want to be more like America, while nonsensical Americans want to be more like Europe.