Thread by @frances94354144

1/ Short 🧵 on elections and felon candidates for all my American fellas.

I am Italian and I lived through the Berlusconi era. In a lot of ways Berlusconi was to Italy what Trump is to the USA.
If you want to know what will happen, look at Italy 20 years ago.

2/ Like Trump, Berlusconi was an entrepreneur who decided to enter politics on his own agenda, was misunderstood and underestimated by his enemies, had a LOT of trouble with justice, but nonetheless gathered unbelievable support from the people.

3/ B. was investigated and often tried on many different subjects: money laundering, mafia affiliation, corruption, entertaining himself with underage prostitutes...you name it. But these setbacks with justice NEVER EVER eroded the political support he had. Never.

4/ two reasons for that: owning half of the mainstream TV channels let him build his own narrative as a "victim of biased justice", and his way to communicate so down-to-earth earned him the sympathy of many people who saw others, not him, as old corrupt politicians.

5/ B. was able to always portrait himself as external to politics due to his private business in TV and football. Thus every time he got investigated or tried he blamed corrupt politicians and leftist justices who wanted to rid themselves of him.

6/ note that once this game started it became a life-or-death thing. B. Was forced to remain in politics to avoid jail, and needed to govern to make laws beneficial to himself and his business. There was no other option for him. T. Is now in the same situation.

7/ B. hijacked the right-wing for over 20 years, losing his grip only when his old age and another huge sex scandal drove large parts of voters away. But here's the most interesting thing: eve in his golden age people rarely admitted voting for B.

8/ elections in Italy are fair. There's no questioning it, and no risk of rigging. But during the early years and later on too, apparently NOBODY voted for B. You asked your friends, coworkers, relatives, neighbours... nobody said "I am a B. supporter". Yet he had over 25% votes,

9/ meaning that people were ASHAMED of him, ashamed of voting for him, and yet they voted for him. A liar? Yes. A conman? Yes. A mafia man? Maybe. Are you voting for him? No (yes, I will, but I'll never tell a soul). Why and how did this happen?

10/ B. portrayed himself as a successful man, a self-made man, a friend of common people, a victim of political bullying, a victim of biased justice, and NOT a politician. People loved him for this. His adversaries were never able to understand or mimic his communication.

11/ Where am I going with this? I don't really know. I just wanted to tell you: if you want to understand T., look at B. If you think that a conman, convict, and serial liar cannot win elections you are in for a nasty surprise. People will vote for him regardless.

12/ oh, and cherry on top. B. himself was once attacked, left with a bloody face, sported a large bandage and earned additional support. Everything you are going through, I (we) have seen it before. 👀