Berlusconi bis

A good look at the bad news that the election of Berlusconi means for Italy over at openDemocracy.

Italy's hour of darkness is indeed nigh, if it just lasts an hour, even in a metaphoric sense, would be good news. But like the US, the problems are so ingrained, the politics in play so remote from confronting them (rather making them worse), that things will have to get a lot more uncomfortable to wake people up. In both countries, that process is going to last a lot more than an hour.