Gold Mine - Essays of Ruth Ben-Ghiat

Wikipedia says that "Ruth Ben-Ghiat is an American historian and cultural critic. She is a scholar on fascism and authoritarian leaders. Ben-Ghiat is professor of history and Italian studies at New York University."

She has some excellent essays, particularly on Italian politics (she's an expert on fascism), but also on fascism and politics in the U.S. and worldwide (she's U.S.-born to an Israeli father).

Click here for an essay entitled "The GOP might have a new neo-fascist fave," subtitled "Italy is ending an era of male monopoly of authoritarian governance."

The "new neo-fascist fave" is Giorgia Meloni, recently elected prime minister of Italy.

Now Italy is the country to have the first female-led far-right government, ending an era of male monopoly of authoritarian governance. What can we expect from Meloni? For starters, Italy will become more enmeshed in far-right networks that stretch from Vladimir Putin's Russia to Viktor Orban's Hungary to Jair Bolsonaro's Brazil to Republican America.

The connection to the Republicans? Ben-Ghiat says:

If this sounds like Fox News's Tucker Carlson or other Republican figures, there's a reason. As Meloni told The Washington Post, her party feels a kinship with the GOP, and she is in frequent dialogue with Steve Bannon and Republican politicians. "We have networks connecting us, our think tanks work with the International Republican Institute, with the Heritage Foundation, we do cultural exchanges, and many of their fights are about things we have talked about."

As a result of her fascism in Italy (the country where fascism was born):

That is a lesson Americans can pay attention to as Republicans bring their own extremists into government, supporting the campaigns of election deniers, Oath Keepers and participants in the Jan. 6 coup attempt. Republicans have continued to cultivate Orban as a mentor in all things autocratic. Meloni's fascist credentials will likely make her another GOP favorite as Republican America creates its own new political reality to support its dream of illiberal rule.