Two Cheers For Political Correctness

TWO CHEERS FOR POLITICAL CORRECTNESS....Henry Farrell passes along this charming poster used by the Northern League in the recent Italian elections. "Guess who comes last?" it asks, followed by "For your rights on housing, employment, and sanitation."

(Or something like that. Better translations are welcome in comments.)

As it happens, part of the reason the left lost the recent elections in Italy is because its leader, Walter "the Italian Obama" Veltroni, decided to purge the extremists from his coalition and create a genuine center-left party for the first time in recent Italian history. Conversely, the candidate of the right, the famously corrupt and reptilian Silvio Berlusconi, happily teamed up with the Northern League, which Henry accurately describes as "one of the most genuinely revolting political parties in the Western world." Draw your own lessons.

I don't have much to say beyond that except for one thing: say what you will about the persistence of racism and xenophobia in America, but no national political party here could get away with creating a poster like this one, and no national politician could get away with saying the kind of stuff that routinely spews from the mouths of the Northern League's leadership. I blame political correctness.