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| The Fall of the Deep State and 1989's Fall of Communism |
| 2019-12-11 |
| [AmericanThinker] The collapse of the figurative and literal wall between East and West Germany was chief among the upheavals in those final weeks of 1989. Not even a year out of office and Reagan was magnificently proven correct in his understanding of basic humanity: people want to be free. Apart from one major exception, the oppressed behind the Iron Curtain that autumn overcame their regimes without bloodshed and violence. I was in high school during the fall of communism across Eastern Europe. I could not then imagine that precisely thirty years later a caricature of upheaval would be transpiring in my own country. "Resist!" is screamed by media personalities and celebrities and politicians who in a sane world would never win a race for city lieutenant sanitation commissioner. They betray ignorance of what real dictatorship is, as they dare ascribe the gravitas of 1989's righteous rebellions upon their own crusade. When I consider Adam Schiff, Nancy Pelosi, and Jerry Nadler maneuvering for impeachment of President Donald Trump, it is with some dark bewilderment. They have no idea what disaster they are courting for themselves and their allies. It will not end well for them. ...let's clarify something: the present effort to impeach Donald Trump is not a revolution. It is a counter-revolution. Since the summer of 2015 the hardliners of the Deep State have gazed at Trump with derision, then desperation, and now total destruction in mind. To them the American people simply aren't meant for a loosening of control and regaining oversight of their own government. Trump's message resonated with those same American people as had nothing in recent memory. Democracy came to Eastern Europe by ballots and not bullets. So too did American citizenry in flyover country begin to revolt against their elitist masters. ...Trump's domestic and foreign efforts share some kinship with glasnost and perestroika. Mikhail Gorbachev's policies encouraged greater transparency of the Soviet government and loosening of control over the Russian people. But Gorbachev's reforms were too great for Soviet upper crust to accept. Their frustrations with Gorbachev came to a head in August of 1991, when the USSR's own hardliners staged their coup and tried to depose the Russian president. The coup failed, and Gorbachev was restored to office. His policies against entrenched Soviet politics had succeeded beyond any expectation. So too are many of Trump's own policies, particularly economic, already bearing great fruit. "Make America Great Again" may sound ruffian compared to the beautiful enunciation of perestroika, but it has shaken the power structure of our own establishment all the same. ...The likelihood of success for the coup in our midst is comparatively less. Doubtful the methodology will mirror that of the Soviet hardliners. However, the motive remains the same: hold on to power over the people. ...As noted, there was one significant deviation from the pattern of the pro-democracy movements in the autumn of '89. For a quarter century communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu wielded absolute power over the Romanian people. As one Soviet satellite after another fell, he staged a bloody countercoup against Romania's own invigorated malcontents. It didn't work. ...December 25, 1989 was not a Merry Christmas for the Ceausescus. Found guilty by a drumhead trial of crimes against the Romanian people, Nicolai and Elena were immediately thrown against the wall ‐ literally ‐ and shot dead. Images of their shattered bodies were broadcast around the globe. So far as analogies go, the comforts and careers of the petty tyrants in Washington may soon be just as crumbled. Our own would-be overlords would do well to be mindful of that. To point to remember, it's the same kind of people who run Soviet Union - they just rely on different totalitarian tools. |
| Posted by:g(r)omgoru |
| #15 The deep state will not have died until a wooden stake is pounded through its evil heart. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2019-12-11 17:30 |
| #14 Nb. "Ukraine" and "Byelorussia/Belarus" have never been distinct in any meaningful way from the land of Rus or Russia |
| Posted by: Lex 2019-12-11 15:44 |
| #13 Russia < Russian Federation < USSR < Russian Empire |
| Posted by: Lex 2019-12-11 15:35 |
| #12 Procopius2k, the map makes a decent case but it was an empire. Empires are comprised of many states brought together, occasionally with the conquerors name applied to the whole. Claiming India is Britain doesn't make it so just because they were members of the same Empire. |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2019-12-11 15:07 |
| #11 As for Russia, you would have to be a crooked moron to let something like the USSR or the pre-1914 Russian Empire slip through your fingers. Putin may be crooked but he is no moron. OTOH, there are Baraq, Hillary, Jeb, Pelosi, Schifferbrains and Nadler; crooked morons all. |
| Posted by: Abu Uluque 2019-12-11 14:09 |
| #10 Nora Roberts on CBS News last night barely mentioned the Articles of Impeachment. She was nowhere near as breathless as when she reported on the "bombshell testimony" in the early days of the Schiff hearings and it was not the lead story. Instead, she was preoccupied with the shooting in New Jersey. When you've lost CBS, your a loser. |
| Posted by: Abu Uluque 2019-12-11 14:04 |
| #9 The Russian Empire circa 1914 (pre-Soviet) |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2019-12-11 09:58 |
| #8 Just occurred to me, there's another major difference. The people who run Soviet Union were Russian patriots (or chauvinists if you like). These people hate USA. |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2019-12-11 09:55 |
| #7 I think if Gawd were done with America, and the people had suicidally somehow voted in Bernie Sanders, he'd be the perfect reincarnation of Gorbachev. Hell, he'd have disunited the USA itself. |
| Posted by: Dron66046 2019-12-11 09:52 |
| #6 Gorbachev is despised throughout the former Soviet Union. He was a stupid rube, a stooge of the Politburo whose half-baked pseudo-reforms set in motion a decade of utter chaos, misery and impoverishment for the peoples of that nation. Along the way, he ordered the killing of 14 Lithuanian peaceful protestors. If any US figure resembles Gorbachev it's Obama. |
| Posted by: Lex 2019-12-11 08:42 |
| #5 Procopius2k, Russia did not break up into many states, the Soviet Union broke up. If enough people in Puerto Rico, or Samoa, or Guam want to leave the Union I don't think they'll get much of a fight from the rest of the US. Maybe a few of the perpetually Canadian-bound liberals can set up shop in one of these new nations. |
| Posted by: ruprecht 2019-12-11 08:22 |
| #4 What P2P said. Not sure I'd want to be associated with Gorbachev and the complete collapse of the nation that his movement, unwittingly, set in motion. Gorbachev tried to make minor tweaks to a monstrous system. He's much more similar, if you need an American referent, to a hybrid of Obama (cf Obamacare esp.) and W: an incompetent figurehead for a desiccated and corrupt elite, completely out of his depth, a puppet of the Deep State. The other analogy one could make is between the Yeltsin-era Russian oligarchs and our own wannabe tech oligarchs. The rise of each group to dizzying heights of wealth and political sway was impossible without a complete breakdown of regulatory oversight and enforcement of the nation's laws. |
| Posted by: Lex 2019-12-11 08:00 |
| #3 Remember though, - Russia broke up into several states - its an old KGB guy now in charge of rump Russia - who is fixated upon re-annexing the older parts, by force if necessary |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2019-12-11 07:31 |
| #2 It will not end well for them. We can but hope. |
| Posted by: AlanC 2019-12-11 07:21 |
| #1 Well I sure wish they could get what Ceausescu got. |
| Posted by: Dron66046 2019-12-11 06:22 |