Iosef Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili. While I would never presume to be able to pronounce that mouthful of consonants and syllables, I’m grateful to whoever shortened it to Joseph Stalin. Stalin was the leader of the Soviet Union before and during WWII, He was reputed to be a tyrannical dictator of the first order and under his rule, some 20 million people died in the Soviet Union (USSR). Now that we’ve seen in our lives what a country looks like under the rule of a totalitarian madman, we might offer some prognostications about what is likely to happen in our country down the road.
Like Stalin, Trump is predisposed to putting his name on whatever he can, as long as it’s something that will garner lots of attention. Same for his image – there are Trump statues going up around the country, typically either at his behest or as a result of machinations by someone to gain his favor. It works, and he’s so self-absorbed that he doesn’t realize it’s being done to use him for whatever purpose the machinator has in mind. FIFA Peace Prize indeed! He’s simply too taken aback in his imagination that he is a much-beloved leader, damn the polls. He’s absolutely convinced they are all fake anyway.
Unlike the prewar USSR, the US has shredded remnants of a constitution, which, when the justices of the Supreme Court have a rare moment of constitutional clarity, can, and often is, referenced to hold his more malignant excesses in check, otherwise, like Stalin, Trump would undoubtedly be executing his ever growing number of political opponents. Nevertheless, there are gold- colored statues going up in public places, Trump images appearing on US passports, renaming of institutions originally named to honor men who only Trump would have the brass to consider himself worthy to be named beside. It’s obvious from the performers refusing to do business at the Kennedy Center that no one else thinks the Kennedy name should be so desecrated.
Stalin was a genuine narcissistic freak show, even having the great Russian city which is now St. Petersburg, named Stalingrad, a city famous for what was perhaps the most significant part of the conflict with Nazi Germany. People feared Stalin, much like the fawning embarrassments to the United States that occupy the Republican controlled Congress and who grace the cabinet. Although Trump doesn’t have the authority (yet) to have his political opposition or critics executed, I don’t think there are many Americans who have a shred of doubt that he would gleefully do so if allowed. Stalin did.
There were lots of statues of Stalin in the USSR. The Russian folks learned, just like many Americans, to appeal to their narcissistic leader by presenting him with gifts and statues of himself to gain favor, or at a minimum, to avert his opprobrium. The difference is that Stalin was perfectly willing to avail himself of his secret police (now think ICE) to permanently silence his critics. As mentioned earlier, there were millions of Russians who learned the hard way.
When it came his turn to cash in, Stalin had inculcated such fear in his underlings that he had, as was normal, been alone in his living quarters and when he failed to show up for breakfast, everyone was so afraid of him, that his staff people were hesitant to go into his living area to check on him, fearing his wrath at being disturbed. This went on for three days until someone finally worked up the nerve to go in and check on him to find him on the floor where he lay after suffering a stroke days earlier. He was alive but did not survive long. Even in first aid training they teach that time is of critical essence in getting a stroke victim to treatment, but since Stalin was feared so much, he was allowed to suffer fatal damage. So much for a narcissistic maniac creating the conditions which caused his own demise.
I guess one of the points of this posts is to look back at history to get an idea of what most likely awaits Trump’s legacy. There are those who would publicly argue this, but no one in his circles really likes him, but he’s the last person to know that. His own kids are circling like buzzards waiting for him to bequeath his fortune if he still has anything left. He gets the same treatment and feigned respect that any wealthy man gets, and when it’s over, history will most likely not be kind to his memory. Like Stalin, his statues will gleefully be pulled down; like Stalin, his cohorts and consorts will rush to remove their names from any association with him. The Arch, if it ever is erected, will surely be demolished, his image will immediately be removed from passports by the next president who will without doubt be a democrat (hopefully an independent) who will set about undoing all the carelessly crafted executive orders. The few world maps that had name changes of the Gulf of Mexico will be renamed. A democratic president and congress will have his insider trading gambits and his Epstein connections made public and he will, if he’s still on this side of the abyss, be prosecuted and sentenced. If he has already passed to his ultimate fate, his legacy will be forever tarnished as his misdeeds will be revealed publicly as they should already have been. Oh, and if it is ever finished the gaudy edifice he’s so intent on constructing will be renamed the Barak Obama Memorial Ballroom – or some such, but you can bet Trump’s name will be expunged from all of Washington DC.
His Zionist friends and Israel will not lament his departure. No one will. His whole tenure has only been a grift for the wealthy. If there are any coins or medallions around with his image, I highly doubt that anyone outside the 50,053 wayward voters in district 4 in Kentucky will want them. There will indeed be a mad rush to eliminate any mention of the man other than to recall a time in American history when some the voters were madly in love with a New York City real estate shyster who conned them. And that’s where the similarity ends. Stalin didn’t try to scam people into liking him and therefore he had no illusions about his legacy. He understood well that he was a thoroughly disliked dictator and he treated his countrymen accordingly. The biggest difference in Trump and Stalin was that although he treated his countrymen with the highest contempt, Stalin never in a thousand years would have run the USSR on orders from another country.
The arch and the statues will fall and there will never be a temple or shrine to Donald J Trump. World, but especially American, historians will look upon this era with shock, embarrassment, and dismay – but mostly with regret. Thank you for your attention to this matter.
MK