Welcome to Breakpoint, a daily look at an ever-changing culture through the lens of unchanging truth.

For the Colson Center, I'm John Stone Street.

Italian politics does not typically dominate English-speaking Twitter, but a speech by Georgia Maloney,

expected to soon become Italy's first female prime minister, caught the attention of a great many around the world.

The speech was from 2019. In it, Maloney decried the practice of commercial surrogacy,

rebuke the heedless rush to chemically castrate teens with gender dysphoria,

praised the natural family as the basis of society, palled out the evils of euthanasia and

abortion, and defended her identity

as not just a citizen of the world, but as someone both Italian and Christian. She closed her speech

with a quote from G.K. Chesterton, a prediction he made that has now come true. Fires will be kindled to

testify that two and two make four. Swords will be drawn to prove that leaves are

green in the summer. It was certainly refreshing to hear classical truths a Western civilization

defended with such passion. Many political and cultural conservatives, both in America and around

the world, praised Maloney, holding up her words as a model of what it means to resist

progressivism's continued march across

our institutions. On the other hand, many in mainstream media, of course, were quick to label her

as far right, nationalist, even fascist. Now, most of the critiques of her speech can be dismissed

with ease. After all, it's not uncommon for journalists to describe anything or anyone

not fully committed to progressive ideology as far right, or to describe the mildest expressions

of patriotism as nationalism or any conservative ideal as fascist. Russell Moore of Christianity

today were among those who noted that Maloney's political party has roots

in the remnants of Italy's Mussolini era, a level of historical scrutiny that most political

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