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PARTYING ABROAD

Tea Party Phenomenon Spreads to Italy

The 'Tea Party Italia' is taking its cue from America's Grover Norquist

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by Dain Fitzgerald

Staff Writer t

Image: Facebook

How do you say "no more taxes" in Italian?

US News & World Report tells us that the Tea Party phenomenon and Grover Norquist's staunch anti-tax stance are catching on in Italy. The "Tea Party Italia," that country's equivalent of the stateside conservative movement, is urging its own elected and would-be elected officials to sign a Norquist-style anti-tax pledge.

"They liked the pledge, so they came up with their own," said Norquist, who's also seen his seemingly pet cause attract support in Japan. "I'm excited."

The political dynamics in Italy, however, are a barrier to the effectiveness of a personal anti-tax pledge on the part of a politician, explains David Mazzerelli, the co-founder of Tea Party Italia. This is because political candidates are chosen by parties, which allows them to avoid what Americans would call a "campaign season."

"Candidates in the US want to sign this pledge because they have to do a difficult and hard campaign," says Mazzerelli, who contrasts the process with that found in his own country. "It's very difficult to find [politicians] that believe in our ideas in Italy."

Via U.S. News & World Report.
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Comments (view in Forum)

  • Neo_NtheMatrix
    !
    @PayThatCEO - We're in a very weak position financially. Has there ever been a great power this much in debt that continued to be a great power? We have no one that is willing to address our fiscal crisis which is a national security issue as well. Also, consider the obesity crisis in this country which is born of excessive government programs to feed people which only ends up with the recipient on a diet of potato chips and soda pop. This too is another national security issue as we soon won't be able to produce enough physically able members to join the armed forces. This country can be great again, but only if we start electing leaders willing to deal with our very real problems.
  • PayThatCEO
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    @Neo_NtheMatrix

    Of all the very serious problems in America you put obesity at the top? Really? Because we won't produce enough soldiers? Really?

    We're in a very weak position financially, you said. Imagine, for a moment if you will, ALL the money America has ever spent on its military. All the money ever spent on war over years and years and years. Just imagine what kind of country we could have if we had that money back. Yes, I know there would be several fewer millionaires and billionaires, but as whole, imagine the greatness this nation could have accomplished. The science, the education, the medical advances, the technology...if all that money we invested into the war machine had been invested in things that benefit all of us. Imagine how great we would be.

    It's sad that defense is what we do. Military is the only thing we know. War is the only thing we seem interested in. It's a great way to manipulate large sums of money. It's a great way to control a population of people. It makes a handful of lucky individuals very wealthy, but it does nothing for us as a nation. Yet, we can not seem to live without it.

    Our debt is the fault of many, many years of spending outside our own country. It is many, many years of paying attention to the rest of world while neglecting our own nation. It's greed that has driven us over the edge and now the piper needs to be paid but those who put us in this position aren't the ones paying. It's you and me.

    We have very real problems in this country. Education is one (too expensive, too unavailable, and not nearly good enough). Violence (when it comes to industrialized nations we're the most violent of them all.) Why are so violent towards each other? Could it be we've been raised and raised our children on a steady diet of war and killing? Jobs? While we send our kids to college and have them take on astronomical debt, many will become waiters and sales clerks. Why? Because we love capitalism but have confused it with corporatism. Corporatism is destroying our country. It runs our government and even runs our personal lives. But we won't utter a negative word about it for fear of sounding like a socialist, communist, marxist, fascist or something else ending in ist.

    Our political views are destroying us like nothing I've ever seen before and I believe they will end up being our demise. Give us another 10 or 20 years and you may see a very dangerous divide, if not war among our own people, simply because we refuse to work together. It's shameful and ineffective and weakened us considerably.

    Fat people, as a national problem, are but a blip on the radar. We have problems that stretch far and beyond potato chips, but these problems will NEVER be solved because as a nation our foresight, creativity and independent thought is, overall, very poor. Instead we've become weak, dependent followers of any number of lines of thought so we don't have do any thinking for ourselves.
  • LGRepublican
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    @PayThatCEO Imagine all the money we'd have if we could take back the trillions we've spent on the "war on poverty" the last 50 years. Imagine how many MORE millionaires we could have if all those dollars weren't taken away from the private sector in the form of taxes. The point is, we can all cherry pick programs we don't like and hold those up as examples of "wasted" money....

  • View all 12 replies >

  • stepped_in_it
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    Except that some of the tea party act a little "wacky", I know what you mean. Not a tea partier either, but, understand their stand against taxes and government responsibility! We should be asking for smaller government, less government intervention and government responsibility when it comes to how/where our tax dollars are spent. Now, if the tea party can get rid of the wacko's......but they do entertain me sometimes!
  • u
    Chromalord
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    Primarily because its a self-righteous, conservative movement, which doesn't have the ability to see the forest for the trees of its own contradictions as a large portion of its members benefit from the same programs they would attempt to supplant. It has evolved primarily into a "party" of hate, distancing itself from both parties, but taking aim at blocking the Dems' agendas ( as only 5% are Democrats). There is growing evidence that at its core, this movement is racist as 89% are white and only 1% black, and 39% percent are from the south, and most are men over the age of 45.
  • u
    RobertJHarsh
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    While the Tea Party "idea" sounds good on the surface, such as low taxes, more adherance to the constitution, small govt...things that I like. The dark side is they are racists and homophobes and align themselves up with neocons. Remember yesterday's article about them getting rid of a legit moderate conservative, McConnell?

    Italy is well beyond some of the social issues here but I hope they are interested in moving past their gimmedat state but not move backwards on social issues.
  • u
    AceLuby
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    I wouldn't even give him the moniker of 'moderate conservative'. He's a conservative through and through w/ very little moderation from Mitch, "our #1 goal is to make sure Obama is a one term President" McConnell. With that being said, it makes it even more ridiculous that this guy isn't far enough to the right for the tea party and shows how out of touch the base of the tea party truly is.
  • RoyFloyd
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    The first priority for the Italian Tea Party should be advocate privatization of the socialist health care system that consumes a whopping 9% of the GDP. and push for the U.S. model which would double the cost while providing both a lower life expectancy and higher infant mortality. Hmmmm. Looks pretty hard to sell, maybe they should save health care for later....