Posted on 07/11/2024 5:10:11 AM PDT by MtnClimber
Leonid Brezhnev led the former Soviet Union as General Secretary of the Communist Party until 1982. But like most Russian apparatchiks who excessively smoked, drank, and gained weight, he aged prematurely. Also like them, his disabilities never led to his abdication.
By Brezhnev’s late sixties and early seventies, he was too ill to travel abroad or make public appearances. Indeed, his debility left the Soviet Union without a real leader for the final six or seven years of his tenure.
Brezhnev got away with it because the Soviet state-controlled media doctored photos and videos to attest to his supposedly vigorous health and constant hands-on involvement.
“Journalists” sent out false communiques. They spun narratives that Brezhnev was robust, hale, and working long hours on behalf of the Russian people. Any dissenting journalists who sought to report the true, sad state of affairs were in danger of losing their jobs, freedom—or even their lives.
Instead, the “reporters” of Pravda (“Truth”), the official print megaphone of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, wrote lies about Brezhnev’s busy workdays. Pravda’s handlers spun fables about the respect (and fear) the rest of the world held for such a dynamic leader—even as Brezhnev became an ill virtual recluse.
The cynical Russian people shrugged because they had long been accustomed to their lying media and the falsehoods they peddled. And besides, Brezhnev was a doctrinaire Stalinist communist. So his job was not to rock the boat or upset the Russian communist hierarchy.
Instead, he reigned over the penultimate Soviet “era of stagnation,” while an ossified communism increasingly destroyed all incentives and hope, leaving the Russian people poor, cynical, and helpless.
Something similar has happened to a calcified America under President Joe Biden. Like the late-stage Leonid Brezhnev, Biden is now a president in name only.
(Excerpt) Read more at amgreatness.com ...
And like they found in the USSR and every other country that tried communism, we are going to find that 0bamaoism will destroy the country.
Indeed… what is next?!
Brezhnev had dementia and died in office. Nine years later the Soviet Union collapsed.
We have our own president in office who has dementia. I think he is a symbol of where the US is now. As people and countries walk away from the US I expect to see its collapse within 10 years or less.
We will recover, but it will take several generations.
Victor Davis Hanson is an American treasure.
BTTT
I believe that massive voter fraud by the Democrats will steal the 2024 elections and they will then complete destroying the Middle class and disarming law abiding citizens and then goodbye Republic and hello totalitarian government.
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And then the remnant Americans will have a decision to make.
We know how the story ends—mass looting by Party members.
Franklin: “a republic if you can keep it”
Our founding fathers were astonishingly brilliant and prophetic.
Will 250 years end up being the shelf life of the greatest experiment in self governance the world has ever known?
We’ll know in a few months.
Don’t ask us, Professor.
Ask the cabal running this Charlie foxtrot.
So criminal biden is PINO?
They also kill their own children. 65 million and counting.
Good commentary. Our media constantly attacks Russia, yet they have become Russian media.
Then, our Pravda will likely present the new official narrative. They will convince us that his successor, Vice President Kamala Harris, is an underappreciated genius whose past portfolios led to solving the border crisis and renewing American dominance in space.
The perfect narrative from Prof Hanson. Ignore at your own peril.
FR Index of his articles: Victor Davis Hanson on FR
Town Hall: Victor Davis Hanson on Town Hall
American Greatness: Victor Davis Hanson on American Greatness
His website: Victor Davis Hanson
Please let me know if you want on or off this new VDH ping list.
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But...but...they were WHITE!!!
In addition to the incapable, geriatric leadership and compliant, regime-friendly press churning out propaganda, we also have one other similarity with the decaying Soviet Union; an unsustainable debt-ridden economy which will collapse in due course.
However, there is one difference between the decaying America and the Soviet Union. Whereas the Russians are a stoic people accustomed to making do as best they can in an orderly, civilized manner, an American collapse will result in riots, looting, martial law and some form of military rule.
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