had to gently break it to my mom that her friends who are already planning on moving to Italy may not in fact be escaping fascism to the extent they think they are
The killer for the US is the threat to democracy itself.
Populations can make bad decisions, and then change their minds. Happens all the time. A Trump term 2 occurring *after* he attempted a coup and holding immense newly minted executive power has no analog in modern Europe.
Not the entire continent, no. We are still a very Leftist population overall in Portugal, especially by U.S. standards. Left/Right do not mean the same thing in Europe. Democrats would be considered right-wing here.
What’s happening here is I’m aware of both our countries’ history and for most of the 18th through 20th C they were extremely similar- quite intentionally so, as settler colonial projects hardly bothered distinguishing themselves politically from one another until the end of that time window
