Even though both Berlusconi and McCain have a leading role in the world of politics and share more or less the same political stance, I must say that comparing these two personalities was not so easy as it seemed..first of all because I didn’t know very much about the Presidential Elections that are now taking place in the U.S. and I was quite uninformed about what John McCain’s policy exactly consists in as well. The only thing I knew about him was that he is a conservative leader and that he recently won the Republican Party’s nomination against the other candidate Mike Huckabee. Therefore, to get a more precise idea of McCain’s current political campaign I went to visit his personal website and that of the NewYorkTimes and spent some time watching the videos of the most important speeches he gave in Arizona, Florida, Ohio etc. Then, I went to visit Berlusconi’s website as well and watched some videos of his latest political speeches and of some television interviews.
Reflecting on the things that the two political leaders have in common, I noticed that when addressing their audience they both have a great personal charisma and a lot of self-confidence stating the goals of their programs. When interacting with the public, most of the times both Berlusconi and McCain don’t answer directly to the questions but with lots of circumlocutions as well as they always tend to compare their policy with that of their opponents, often criticizing them. Berlusconi often does it with his usual sharp sense of humor and with slogans like this: “The Left has bent Italy. We say: Italy, rise up again!”
As regards their political beliefs, they both share the same ideals, i.e. patriotism, family, and religious faith, even though we can notice some differences in their way of thinking. For what concerns patriotism for example, McCain talks a lot about honor, courage, dedication and responsibility in defending the country, focusing on the importance and the proud of being American as part of a nation that throughout history has proved to be the world’s leading country. In fact, some of his most recurrent expressions are: “We are the captains of our fate"; "we're the world's leader"; "we make the future better than the past"; "we don't hide from history". We make history; "...my friends, stand up and fight for America”. Berlusconi as well talks a lot of love for the country and the importance of keeping Italian traditions; however, rather than talking of “defending the honor” and “serving the country” (MacCain's typical expressions), he focuses more on the importance of living in a free country, where people can achieve the right of individual freedom. In fact, some of his most typical expressions are: “I want to live like a free citizen in a free country”; “We believe in freedom and all its forms, from individual to freedom of speech, thought and association”.
I think that such differences in the viewpoints of the two leaders might be firstly due to the fact that the U.S. and Italy face very different sociopolitical situations, in particular that America has a much bigger commitment to the war in Iraq and Afghanistan than Italy has: in fact, according to McCain, honor and courage are essential to prevent and combat terrorism in all its forms. In addition, I think that the past experiences the two leaders had in their lives play a fundamental role in defining their policy: as a former naval aviator and prisoner in the Vietnam War, McCain praises above all courageous service as the only means to defend America and fight against Islamic extremism; on the other hand, as a former entrepreneur, Berlusconi primarily aims at giving more freedom to entrepreneurship, promoting in this way private economic enterprise; he talks about the Italian military intervention in Iraq and Afghanistan only as a means to support America’s policy, certainly not as the primary aim of his program.
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