The real reason the Santorums left Italy
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The real reason the Santorums left Italy
When Rick Santorum virtually tied for first in the Iowa caucus, I watched his "victory" speech and -- don't fall out of your chair -- I thought it was the most positive moment of the GOP race so far. Although I don't agree with Santorum's policy solutions, his meditation on his father fleeing Mussolini's Italy in the 1920s and pursuing his dreams in America was moving and uplifting.
It's interesting that there's more to the story:
On the campaign trail, Santorum often touts his grandfather’s flight from Italy “to escape fascism,” but he has neglected to publicly mention their close ties with the Italian Communist Party. “Rick’s grandfather Pietro was a liberal man and he understood right away what was happening in Italy,” Mrs. Santorum told Oggi. “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 shame he won’t have the joy to see his son’s success in his bid for the White House.” She goes on to explain how the family then became pillars of the Communist Party in Italy.
The matriarch lauds her distant relative as a “masterpiece” of the family, whom she calls a man of high intelligence and integrity. “He would be a great president,” she told Oggi. “But if he wants to make it, he will have to soften some of his positions. 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.”
The Oggi piece also quotes an angry cousin who preferred to voice his dissent anonymously, remembering the time when high-ranking Communist Party members frequented the Santorum household in Riva del Garda. “There are Santorums who would roll over in their graves to hear [Rick’s] rhetoric,” he said.
Some people are spinning this as a Santorum "gotcha" story but I don't see it that way. One element of the American Dream is personal freedom to pursue your own ideas about politics, even if they differ 180 degrees from your ancestors. I do wonder this, though. Last week, Santorum's most moving riff was about his grandfather's funeral after a long and successful life in the coalfields of western Pennsylvania. Given his grandfather's political bent, I wonder if he was active in the trade unionism that made it possible for coal miners to thrive in what was once a booming American middle class. That's part of the story you won't hear Santorum tell in the Tea Party-powered Waffle Houses of the Palmetto State this weeek -- but he should. It's hard to imagine this immigrant's grandson rising in life to run for president as an ultra-conservative -- without the progressive policies that spawned him.
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Wow. These posts reflect poorly on primary education. Did you guys read this or just see the byline and freak out? The picture is fine. RS says his family was fleeing fascism.— TomH1- I copied and pasted something the mayor said and was printed in this paper but it obviously has been deleted. I will resubmit with a more appropriate word. . . . The mayor has asked adults not to act like idiots and Will Bunch's. What's next? Finding out his great great great grandfather married a 14 yo and trying to paint the family as sexual preditors? What is wrong with you with you attacks on someone I had not heard of till recently? You should be slapped.— towman
- whats the point anyway. The communist party in Italy was the only real alternative to Fascism in those days. Who cares what his grandfather did.— Lil Bobby
- Stick a fork in Ricky. He failed as a Pennsylvania senator and the people of New Hampshire saw him for what he is: a stooge of the totalitarian wealthy who wants to be remembered as a demagogue. That's fine by me. The people of South Carolina will see him as what he is, too. Let him raise and spend a mountain of money on a lost cause. At least the campaign professionals will earn a few bucks while they can off the Dead Candidate Walking...and shooting his mouth off about how God is showing him the Golden Path for America. The only path Ricky is walking will take him past the sign that reads "Abandon All Hope, Ye Who Enter Here," right after Saint Peter says, "Well, Rick, you go to Hell."— bbk713
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- Santorum lost me with his actions in the Terri Schiavo Case. But Will Bunch is still a schmuck.— The Monk
- This newspaper is anti-Santorum because Santorum is a walking, talking nosebleed.— bbk713
- I can only assume that Mr. Bunch would vote for Mr. Santorum if only he espoused the communist ideology of his grandfather. Lets also remember that his grandfather held these views before the experience of communism in the 20th Century and the inevitable mass murder and starvation of untold millions that it was responsible for!— cujat13
- Why is Ok for a liberal writer to call someone a hater and use Nazi images, but the guy who sings the MNF theme lost his job for making a comparason like Bunch is? The left had a heart attack but Bunch basically called Santorum someone with Nazi blood in them. The one way media at work again - bloogers like Will really have no morals or codes of ethics at all it is an embarrassment to our country as to how low we have stooped in life we are pathetic..........— reddog44
- I'm assuming you meant boogers - LMAO — philly2flag
I'm just waiting for the anti-Ron Paul columns by this tool.— kjuggs77- This was very common in Italy in the 1920s.Italy's "Communist Party" was a bit of a joke.It joined forces with the Social Democrats( akin to our Republican Party)along with all the other social groups who opposed Mussolini's Fascists to counter that destructive ideology.Not many of the old people who survived Fascism are still alive,but for all of you who are Italian American,ask them.Santorum is a classic reactionary,but his Old Country story is not unusual,including family communist ties in 1925.It means nothing.— red rock
- Bunch, I thought you'd be overjoyed by a Communist success story.— DC
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