The wrong choice was not made two months ago, but well over four years ago, when Kamala Harris was chosen as vice president to join Joe Biden. It was a choice resulting from a casting, dictated by pink/black/young washing, wanting to counterbalance the candidacy for president of a white, straight and elderly man. An error that was repeated when the Democrats had to choose, in an emergency, the candidacy to replace the same octogenarian who had won four years earlier, but who was now showing clear signs of senile criticality.

Choice, that of Kamala Harris, made – in 2020, as well as nowadays – in the wake of the “woke” culture which, since the 1910s, has developed in the USA, and then spread throughout the Western world, finding consensus among progressive parties. The American Democrats are paying for the illusion of replacing politics with marketing, riding the cultural trend of the moment. The illusion of political correctness collides with reality, once again, in the aftermath of the victory of Donald Trump, who returns to being the president of the United States, after having missed a turn. A sensational event that had not been repeated for 126 years (from Grover Cleveland to the end of the 19th century, interspersed with the presidency of Benjamin Harrison).

Today the Americans re-elect Trump, yesterday the Italians re-elected Berlusconi

The America that people like, from George Clooney to Taylor Swift, from Hollywood to the radical-chic cultural circles of New York, cannot understand how Donald Trump was able to repeat his electoral success. A bit like when in Italy the people of the left and the girotondi couldn’t understand how the majority of Italians could be duped by Silvio Berlusconi. Basically, there is a disconnect between the progressive left-wing political world and the real country. American Democrats are not in touch with deep America, just as our center-left has no knowledge of what a large part of Italians think and feel. Today Americans re-elect Donald Trump, yesterday our compatriots re-elected Silvio Berlusconi several times. The left (with or without the “centre”) continues not to understand, up to the present day, the electoral success of the Brothers of Italy and a certain holding in the polls – after two less than exciting years of government – beyond a few zero point less.

And the last straw is that the more progressive political forces, from the USA to Italy, presume to understand the people, the greater the amazement in the face of multiple electoral defeats. For one thing, Trump’s victory was especially marked in the least white and most multi-ethnic part of the country. Trump was in the majority among Latinos. A bit like when the proletarian electorate of the north (including Emilia-Romagna) largely voted for Umberto Bossi’s League and then Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia, passing through Beppe Grillo’s 5 Star Movement, ending with Fratelli d’ Italy. The local left at the time wondered how it could intercept popular consensus and only succeeded when, rather than marketing, it concentrated on government proposals, intercepting the reasons for discontent and the right political interpreters who could enliven the political projects (the two victories by Romano Prodi, the substantial draw with Pierluigi Bersani, the victory in the European elections of Matteo Renzi’s Democratic Party in 2014).

The time of political marketing

Now, in the age of political marketing, there is no longer space for contents, but for containers; not for political figures, but for media figures; not for programmatic political agreements, but for friendly and parental relationships. The candidate is chosen not by virtue of his concrete chances of winning, but on the basis of his supposed appeal (whatever it is or is supposed to be). For example, it is quite impressive to read about thinkers – always on the left – who theorize about “wide-ranging electoral contracts”, after having longed for more or less broad fields. It is alienating to hear – in all the national newspapers, in print, radio and TV – excellent political strategists from liberal and moderate components who should be involved in the centre-left coalition. Without even asking the question that liberals in Italy do not exist and have never existed (we are a country of corporations, impermeable professional orders, oligopolies, if not full-blown monopolies).

And the moderates certainly exist, but for some years now the majority have not voted for the centre-left, but have given their consent to the centre-right, between the Brothers of Italy and Forza Italia. And until a few years ago, they were ready to vote for Salvini’s League. These are the same strategists who fall in love with media personalities, who believe they can convey consensus with communication gimmicks, with tangled reasoning, passed off as crystalline thinking. Even going so far as to claim to reverse the leaders out of nowhere, when to resurrect them. While in the centre-right, with so much cynicism, the coalition holds only by virtue of the conquest of power and the choice of candidate falls on the one who guarantees the greatest chance of victory.

New dynamics in Italian politics

As regards the Italian political landscape, Trump’s election highlights possible new dynamics. On the right, Matteo Salvini can boast of having been a prophet of Republican victory right from the start, trusting in a preferential relationship with the new American administration; while, Giorgia Meloni will be forced to make a radical change of outlook, being able to count on the special relationship she has long had with Elon Musk, Trump’s protégé and close to a government position. It will have to review its orientation with respect, for example, to the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. It is likely that the center-right will strengthen its Orbanian nature, so close to the American tycoon.

With the probable creation of a rift between the League, the Brothers of Italy and Forza Italia. While on the left, “Giuseppi” Conte could return to more right-wing positions, in memory of his old militancy at the head of a centre-right government, when he governed with the League and the then Interior Minister Salvini prevented migrants from disembarking. Conte could further strengthen his pacifist position in favor of a stop to the Russian-Ukrainian conflict (which would actually hide a pro-Vladimir Putin position). And who knows whether Atlanticism, which will continue to distinguish both Forza Italia and the Democratic Party (excluding some political personalities very close to Conte’s positions), may lead to the emergence of a new broad field. The most unpredictable of all. Never predicted by the very fine thinkers of the center-left.