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Santorum’s Italian Connections

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. Hang on to that story.

A few years ago, my cousin and I (he’s on my mother’s side) were swapping the deep, dark secrets of our fathers’ families. I had recently acquired a copy of a book written by my paternal grandfather and discovered that Granddad was a Bolshevik. Turns out Jon’s paternal grandfather was a card-carrying Communist. For my grandfather, it was a decision driven by frustration with an oligarchic structure in the Caribbean that was run by inherited position and nouveau riche money. For Jon’s grandfather is was much simpler. Jon’s father’s family is Jewish. The communists were the only people standing up to the Nazi regime in Germany. Our fathers had been devout believers in the Cold War. My Dad was an Eisenhower man through and through. The whole irony of it was ROTFLMAO funny. Neither of us looked at these choices, made back in the 1930s without understanding the historical context of them. We understood that there were greater issues involved than those of today.

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. Everyone knows the Martin Niemöller poem about not speaking out, but few remember that it begins with the words “First they came for the communists…” That’s what the Fascists did, both in Italy and Germany. First they came for the communists.

The Italian weekly magazine Oggi, tracked down Santorum’s Italian relatives in the village of Riva del Garda in northern Iraly. Santorum did an internship in Florence in 1985 and met his relatives then. He returned in 1985 and 1989. According to his cousin’s widow, Maria Malacarne Santorum, “He loved our culture and cuisine so much, he brought his wife-to-be, Karen, a massive cookbook of Italian recipes.”

But Signora Santorum doesn’t understand how Rick could have strayed so far from the family political path to hold positions so contrary to theirs. 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. After a few years, he returned to Italy with his wife and children, including Aldo, Rick’s father, who passed away late last year. It’s a same he won’t have the job to see his son’s success in his bid for the White House.” She just does not think his ultraconservative ideas are good. “To take a stand against homosexuality or to oppose divorce is harmful. Principles count, but in politics, one must have the capacity to be open-minded.”

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. The rest of the family might be willing to forgive him his sins if Santorum wins the White House and would “send the American presidential airplane and take all the Santorums to the White House,” said cousin Bruno.

Rick Santorum’s campaign focuses on his ultra-conservative social agenda – no contraception, no abortion, no gay marriage, no gay rights, no divorce, male parents mandatory – but along he line, he must embrace the Republican fiscal agenda and trickle-down, business-driven, 1% owned economics.

Benito Mussolini invented the political system known as fascism. He wrote, “Fascism should rightly be called Corporatism, as it is the merger of corporate and government power.” The right wing media has worked very hard to convince their faithful, gullible followers that fascism, socialism and communism are the same thing ever since the heads of energy companies sat down with Dick Cheney to write the Bush administration’s energy policies. They don’t want people to understand the differences between the economic policies of socialism and the totalitarianism of fascism and communism. They don’t want the word “fascism” attached to their corporate-driven, corporate-funded party. They don’t want people to look behind the curtain at the Tea Party Express and find that the source of the money to start the Tea Party movement was a Koch Brothers foundation. The don’t want people to understand what Karl Rove means when he talks about a “permanent majority” – one party rule, totalitarianism. According to Benito Mussolini himself, the Republican Party is fascist.  An eighty-something German immigrant from Occupy Seattle came to the same conclusion, as did my dear friend Barbara, an English WWII survivor.

So, the next time Santorum tells his wonderful immigration story about his grandfather running away from the fascists, try not to rupture something laughing.

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