It’s not easy being an expatriate. Once the fascination of living abroad wears off, the local color fades, and their problems become yours, you begin to wonder why you put up with all of the difficulties. The only thing that makes life easier if you’re an Italian American living in Italy is that you don’t have to spend most of your life spelling your name anymore. You just say it, and they write it.
I’ve been straddling the ocean for almost two decades now, feeling nostalgic wherever I am. Once I’ve been back in the States for a while and the smiling friendly faces and efficiencies begin to feel commonplace once again, I realize how European I have become. But the longer I stay in Europe, the more acute is my awareness of just how American I really am. My intolerance for their imbroglios grows in direct proportion to my permanence abroad.
Nevertheless, if things keep up the way they’ve been going, if we really do end up with our Congressmen getting rid of our President and if the Italian parliament decides that they are going to reelect theirs for a second term, then I may just have to find another ocean to straddle.
The Republicans have been ignoring the will of the people concerning the investigation and impeachment of our President for almost a year now. They allowed Kenneth Star to spend tons of taxpayer’s money to play the Great Inquisitor and breach every rule of fair play that is expected of an "independent" council. Every move they have made to make more public the private life of our President has worked as a boomerang against them. The more we know, the less we want to know, and the more evident it has become that this whole affair was a political witchhunt. The Star Report on the Internet, the videotapes of Clinton’s grand jury testimony, the transcripts of Linda Tripp’s taped conversations with Monica, and the tapes themselves. Instead of revealing the baseness of Bill Clinton, they demonstrated just how low the authors of the new crucible could go.
They have displayed disdain for the will of the people, scorn for the opinion polls, even the results of the mid-term elections have evidently been unable to escape their contempt. Saturday we witnessed yet another exhibition of their insolence: After the House Judiciary Committee approved a fourth article of impeachment to stand alongside the three it voted on Friday, a Democratic call for the lesser punishment of censure was rejected. At that point, Democrats pushed for a full house floor vote for censure with Representative Thomas Barrett of Wisconsin insisting that "no member of this institution should be denied the chance to vote his conscience." The "gentleman" (as they call themselves and each other) and chairman, Mr. Hyde, rejected this suggestion which would have allowed ALL of our representatives to decide whether or not to drag us through this final chapter, yet another display of arrogance and usurpation of democracy.
In Italy, the office of president is supposedly unpolitical. He is chosen by members the Senate and his duty is to act as figurehead over the entire country and represent all of its citizens regardless of their political extractions. He remains in office for a period of 7 years, and by accepting such office, he agrees to divest himself of all political bias and sentiment.
Nothing could be further from the modus operandi of Oscar Luigi Scalfaro. He has done everything in his power to support the center-left coalition. When Berlusconi’s government fell in 1995 due to the mutiny of the Northern League, instead of allowing the Italians to go back to the urns, he let Lamberto Dini form an "interim" government. Since the former Communists came to power last year, they, too, have had to deal with insurrection from the hard-line Refound Communists of their shaky coalition. However, Scalfaro worked hard to help them patch up their differences reproposing Prodi as prime minister time and again. When that became impossible, he opted for Massimo D’Alema. His actions can hardly be considered unbiased or non-partisan.
And there are other incidents which bring Scalfaro’s rectitude into serious question. One concerns the investigations regarding the former Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi and his political ally, Gianfranco Fini. According to the former Minister of Justice, Mancuso, as soon as he took office, he was called aside by Scalfaro’s spokesman, Gaetano Gifuni, and asked to continue with the utmost haste and solicitude, the proceedings against these two men considered to be Scalfaro’s political adversaries. Another pertains to the investigations and trials concerning the abuse of secret money funds handled by the Italian secret service, SISDE. During those investigations it was revealed that the Ministers of the Interior had been receiving the sum of 100 million lira a month ($63,000). Oscar Luigi Scalfaro had occupied that office for four years of the period in question. Scalfaro’s way of defending himself against these accusations was to say, "Non ci sto" or "I won’t put up with this." And in fact, he didn’t. When Mancuso tried to disclose that Scalfaro had encouraged him to cover up any evidence regarding his receipt of such funds, he lost his job as justice minister. And in the meantime, the Italian president has surely made a pact with the devils better known as the magistrates who act as public prosecutors. They have been getting away with decisions that go beyond their constitutional powers and Scalfaro has been loathe to step on their toes.
So, here I am with the luxury of dual-citizenship in two countries where democracy is supposed to reign. In one, my representatives are doing everything in their power to kick out of office a perfectly good president who lied about questions that never should have been asked. In the other, they are doing somersaults to reelect an aging bigot who is biased and perfectly bribeable. Maybe I’ll just have to move to some country with an outmoded dictatorship where at least they don’t pretend that the people are sovereign.
December 1998
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