I see the parallels with McCarthyism more, and that died pretty quick once the Senate turned on him. Turned on McCarthy but not the underlying ideological anti-communism.
Waiting for the American Khrushchev: Who will deliver the “Cult of Personality” speech to Americans?
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A real problem and interesting discussion and all, but, as a (former?) Russian history, CCCP studies and Slavic languages person, I think the 2 situations are so different, historically, politically, sociologically, etc, as to render the topic DOA.
I do never tire of seeing old “Cornhead” banging his shoe though.
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Well, there are no perfect historical parallels to anything, of course. But the GOP really does need someone to come along and slap them upside their heads and let them know the danger of the Trump cult of personality poses to the nation. If there is a connection, it’s through that concept, I’d argue.
Wait? People called him that? This the only other Khruhchev gif I have…
Oh… wait, no, I have this one, too:
But of course, best Communist leader pic ever…
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No, I pretty sure it started almost immediately after the fall of the Soviet, if not earlier. Putin has certainly nurtured it though … in much the same way that the GOP has nurtured a certain image of Reagan, and will no doubt curate and nurture a certain image of Trump.
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“Use a hammer, Nikita!”
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When your only tool is a shoe…
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Nah. It’s still Tito with his pipe.
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Can you please not equate Obama and GW Bush? Bush started an entire war on his own, using trumped up evidence; neither Gore nor Hillary Clinton nor Obama would have invaded Iraq after 9/11. Obama bombed several hundred assumed terrorists. Orders of magnitude of difference.
Not even the concern of imprisoned and murdered dissidents?
Anwar al-Awlaki is much more than a dissident.
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How two consenting communist dictators wish to enjoy each other in the privacy of their own regimes is nobody’s business!
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Not even the concern of imprisoned and murdered dissidents?
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Death Cult of Personality
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Anyone from within the cult that tried such a thing would be denounced as a heretic & instantly excommunicated. Same goes for the El Rushbos, Hannitys, etc. in the media.
For those of us outside the cult, Bernie Sanders would get my nod to give such a speech. There seemed to be a bit of overlap between some of his voters & some of Lord Dampnut’s.
(Full disclosure: I voted for Bernie in the primaries. Twice. But never in hells would I vote for LD.)
ETA: Bernie might sway some of those on the periphery of the cult.
I don’t think the True Believers in Lord Dampnut’s cult can be reached. Damned if I know what to do about 'em, either; but they certainly can’t be ignored.
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Obama slavishly followed most of Bush’s worst policies and covered up the rest. He deserves to be taken to task for that and for his own war crimes
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Let’s not whitewash.
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I don’t see this happening.
Anyone of influence who throws Trump under the bus will be crucified by the Trumpists. You can’t reason with a cult. The GOP created this dilemma, they fertilized their base will bullshit and now they’re reaping the harvest of gleeful shit-eaters. Even if Ivanka, crying, tells Gail King or Tucker Carlson “daddy was a monster who raped me” they’ll come for her. And if mom backs her up she’s next.
The simple fact that something as ridiculous as Q-anon could be so easily believed shows how fucked the GOP is now. You can’t harness that level of madness and not get hurt. It’s like hang gliding in a tornado.
Nobody in the GOP wants to fracture the GOP. That’s the problem. It doesn’t map well to one party control in the USSR.
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Is it worth considering that the COP speech only happened three years after Stalin’s death?
In a modern/GOP context, that means waiting until at least 2024 (or longer if death =death rather than death=fall_from_power). By that point, after at least one mid-term election cycle and plausibly another presidential election and a sustained effort to wean the base off raw meat, someone like Cruz or Moscow Mitch could easily be in a position to say “You know what? Trump was terrible in every conceivable way, and has caused significant damage to conservative aspirations. Let’s not do that again.”
Sure, it’d be an utterly hypocritical about-face, but isn’t that the point?
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