US ruling elite has become like that of Stalin's Soviet Union

 From the Window on Eurasia, March 4:

"Russian Sociologist Says American Ruling Elite Now Following ‘Typically Soviet Traditions’

Paul Goble

    Staunton, Mar. 3 – Igor Eidman, a Russian sociologist who now lives in Berlin exile, says that under President Donald Trump, the ruling elite is restoring “typically Soviet traditions,” including a cult around the leader, servility before him, doublethink and readiness to change directions upon instructions from that leader.

    According to the sociologist, “the cult of Trump has already surpassed the glorification of ‘dear Leonid Ilich’ and approached that of Stalin: The leader is always right, period. Anyone who doubts is an enemy of the people and anyone who argues with the leader is insulting the country (t.me/igoreidman/2037 reposted at https://echofm.online/opinions/amerikanskij-sovok-i-ego-vozhd).h

    Eidman continues: “Trump’s boorish attack on Zelensky is somewhat reminiscent of the start of the conflict between Stalin and Tito. At the end of the war, Yugoslav leaders timidly complained that Soviet soldiers were raping local women.” Stalin was outraged and immediately went on the attack. “Interestingly,” the Russian commentator says, “Stalin accused Tito as Trump has Zelensky, of ingratitude.”... Tito went from being viewed as a hero to an enemy overnight. “As soon as Stalin took offense, all Soviet leaders began to imitate hatred towards the leader of Yugoslavia,” Eidman says. “The same is true now: as soon as Trump and Vance attacked Zelensky, most of the Republicans who had earlier sympathized with Ukraine, servilely joined in these attacks.”

Russians remember that in Soviet times, people “cut out the faces of friends declared to be enemies of the people” from photographs, he continues. “Many Republicans are behaving in the same way. Senator Roger Wicker for example immediately deleted a post with a photo of himself shaking hands with Zelensky after Trump’s display of anger.” 

    Such people, Eidman argues, “are themselves against Putin and in their hearts are for Ukraine, but they publicly support the anti-Ukrainian hysteria of the narcissistic boss.” That parallels what happened in the USSR: “Soviet party critics condemned ‘dissident bourgeois art,’ while at the same time secretly collecting” the paintings and poems they slandered.

    In short, “the Republican Party is becoming an American clone of the CPSU [Communist Party of the Soviet Union - M. M.]. Several party dissidents still sit in Congress, but they probably will be purged in the next round of primaries and will not be allowed to take part in elections again. The rest praise Comrade Trump, ‘the organizer and inspirer of all our victories.’ Slaves, miserable slaves.”

    And these parallels will continue after Putin leaves the scene. When the situation changes, when criticizing the leader becomes not dangerous but profitable, the party slaves will gladly take him out of the virtual Mausoleum and declare that ‘our father turned out to be not a father but a bastard,’ just as their Soviet predecessors did after 1953."