Italy has an election (tomorrow I think) and Berlusconi's contrived party, formed specifically for him, may be on the way out. The voters have no shortage of reasons (with Italy's zero percent economic growth the headliner) to get rid of him, but Italians are famous for their dolce vita, and Berlusconi has pulled so much crap that their anger has been sapped. In America, we've coined a term for that: "outrage fatigue". The article gives a familar account:
Change a few words around, and you could be describing America. I sometimes wonder if Bush could one day just go walking into a McDonalds with an Uzi and start mowing people down, and the next day the media would just kind of shrug and then attack the Democrats for not having a better plan.
And the voters? "All of us are tired", writes Alberto Scarponi, especially of politics. Week in, week out, Berlusconi grabs attention and headlines with antics that would count as a scandal north of the Alps, so the well of agitation is pretty much dry. The trick of coming up with a new piece of impudence every day grinds down his opponents. A second trick, of denouncing all his critics as "communist" or "anti-Italian" keeps them permanently on the defensive.
Still, it needs to be said, Bush and company are absolute saints compared to Berlusconi. See? It can get worse.