Rick Santorum’s Communist Clan in Italy

[Octafish]

Che sorpresa!



Back in Italy, the ultraconservative has a family full of liberals and communists. Barbie Latza Nadeau on their reaction to his surprise surge—and their advice now that he’s sinking.

In the tiny town of Riva del Garda in northern Italy, 83-year-old-Maria Malacarne Santorum keeps her family’s secrets—including those of her late husband’s cousin, Rick. In an exclusive interview with the Italian weekly magazine Oggi, Mrs. Santorum recalls fondly when Rick visited her in 1985 during his law internship in Florence, and when he came back again in 1986 and 1989. “He loved our culture and cuisine so much, he brought his wife-to-be, Karen, a massive cookbook of Italian recipes,” she said.

But the elder Santorum matriarch doesn’t understand why he has diverged so far from the family’s longtime political stance. “In Riva del Garda his grandfather Pietro and uncles were ‘red communists’ to the core,” writes Oggi journalist Giuseppe Fumagalli, likening the family to “Peppone” after a famous fictional Italian communist mayor who fought against an ultraconservative priest known as Don Cammillo and about which a popular television series is based. “But on the other side of the ocean, it’s like his family here doesn’t exist. Instead he draws crowds as the head of the ultraconservative faction of the Republican party, against divorce, gay marriage, abortion, and immigration.”

CONTINUED...

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/01/11/rick-santorum-s-italian-family-speaks-out.html

Not that there's anything wrong with that, Riccardo.

[whathehell]

1. This is great, LOL. n/t

[Octafish]

10. The apple really does fall far from the tree.

In some cases. Think of the BFEE and its guardian angel like, Antonin The Fixer Scalia. That guy is into Machiavellian authoritarian klepto-kakistocratic hierarchies 5-4, to put it nicely, as was his dear, old dad.

http://rfkin2008.wordpress.com/2008/05/11/rfk-jr-on-the-border-the-media-the-election-and-fascist-scalia/

[whathehell]

14. OMG....Never heard this about Scalia's father...Thanks for the link!..n/t

[slackmaster]

2. If Italian-Americans are descended from Italians, then why...

...are there still Italians?

[Octafish]

11. Because they're in Italy.

Beautiful place. Lovely people...



...a sight lot nicer than their American cousins, from the sound of things.

[slackmaster]

13. I've heard that the food's exceptionally good as well, and they have some wonderful wine

[CTyankee]

3. oh, dear. and in the daily beast, no less...

I expect we'll hear from Tina Brown next time she's on one of the political talk shows...

I couldn't be more delighted....

[alcibiades_mystery]

4. They've aparently found the One Good Thing about Rick Santorum...

[Enrique]

5. I can't wait to hear what Dinesh D'Souza has to say about this

not to mention what he'll say about Mitt Romney's Mexican roots.

[Tsiyu]

6. Nice find

In my Italian family, on my papa's side, FDR was a hero.

Santorum, like Scalia, is an embarrassment to decent Italians everywhere.

[EC]

7. I know,

I was shocked the first time I met a repub Italian.

[Ter]

8. In NY/NJ just about all of them that I met are

I'm yet to meet one that supports Obama or has anything good to say about him.

[a la izquierda]

16. Let me take you to visit my family...

hard-core Republicans, the lot of them. My grandmother refuses to speak Italian (which she knows), because it's not American. Bush was an American hero, and the likes of Martin Sheen and anyone else who dared disagree with him was an anti-American traitor. You should hear what they say about my chose field of study: "Why can't you study nice things like American history? You have to find the brown people that make America look bad."

Holidays are awesome.

[MisterP]

9. is that why he peed Seinfeld's couch?

[starroute]

12. What's funniest is that this is the coal miner grandfather he was boasting about

http://lezgetreal.com/2012/01/santorums-italian-connections/comment-page-1/

Remember the story about Rick Santorum’s Italian grandfather, left Italy in 1925 because the fascists were repressing liberties, became a Pennsylvania coal miner? Santorum couches the whole story in the most “America the Beautiful” terms, replete with escaping totalitarianism and living the American dream. . . .

It seems that Rick Santorum doesn’t appreciate the humor in having communist relatives, and can’t put the situation in context, so he kind of glosses over an important bit of his family history…the Santorums of Italy are communists and have been since the 1920s. . . . Grandfather Pietro was a “red communist” and, in Signora Santorum’s words, “was a liberal man and he understood right away what was happening in Italy. He was anti-fascist to the extreme and the political climate in 1925 was stifling, so he left for America." . . .

Another relative, who preferred to be anonymous, remembered the times when the Santorum household in Riva del Garda was a meeting place for high-ranking members of the communist party. “There are Santorums who would roll over in their graves to hear his [Rick’s] rhetoric."

[LynneSin]

15. The same exact one.

This story is too funny!

[Octafish]

17. Odd Rick would be raised in a way that would make him want to join the aristocracy via GOP knavery.

Rick Santorum Compares Medicaid, Food Stamps, Other Social Welfare Programs To Fascism

Riding high off his strong showing in the Iowa caucus, GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum took some time in his closing speech to compare social welfare programs to fascism.

The former Pennsylvania senator drew upon his grandfather's experience during Benito Mussolini's tenure in Italy (video starts at the 50-second mark) and linked Medicaid, food stamps and other U.S. initiatives to the authoritarianism experienced by his relative back in the 1920s.

"One wants to talk about raising taxes on people who have been successful and redistributing money, increasing dependency in this country, promoting more Medicaid and food stamps and all sorts of social welfare programs and passing Obamacare to provide even more government subsidies. More and more dependency, more and more government -- exactly what my grandfather left in 1925," Santorum said.

Two weeks earlier, Santorum made similar comments, noting that Obama's Affordable Care Act could be the "death knell" for America. He referenced the same story about his grandfather, citing worries that the United States could become the same "kind of country" as fascist Italy.

CONTINUED...

Sanitorium's living proof that the modern pol will say whatever it takes to get elected. Then, when he does, it's like the guy doesn't know what his words mean, making rubes like me think he really is as dumb as they say. The fact he wants to disown his working class roots says a lot about his character.

Thanks also, starroute, for the heads-up on LezGetReal. Great sources and analyses, there.