Victor Davis Hanson: Our Brezhnev, Our Pravda, Our Soviet Union. . .Like the late-stage Leonid Brezhnev, Biden is now a president in name only. What is next for our increasingly Soviet state?

American Greatness ^ | 11 Jul, 2024 | Victor Davis Hanson

[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.

[subterfuge]

The deep state probably has ballots with multiple candidates ready to go.

[Wallace T.]

The Deeo State will probably fix the 2024 election, but it will be extremely obvious. Their propaganda outlets are held in as much contempt as the Soviet press was held by the Russians under late stage Communism. At this point, the regime may have at best 40% support among the American people, much of that passive. With the exception of Indian reservations, the Black Belt of the Deep South, and college and resort towns, rural areas from Pennsylvania to Arizona are 3:1 or more anti-regime.

Our rulers are in a far more precarious position than their French and British counterparts. They have committed much of the military to overseas duties. The National Guard units, especially in Red states, are unreliable if state governors resist Federal commands. Federal LEOs are outmanned by state and local police by a huge margin. Millions of Americans own guns.

[Recovering_Democrat]

good analogy. And I guarndamntee you if the media and the Demon Rat party had their way, the news about Biden’s debilitation would be snuffed too.

[cowboyusa]

500 million guns. Good luck with that.

[hanamizu]

Remember when Mao swam the Yangtze? That was great!

[Billthedrill]

Ah, I remember the Brezhnev days! We’d play an annual game of guessing the import of the order in which the desiccated corpses appeared in the reviewing stand during the May Day parade. Geriatrics ruled! That could never happen here...