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« October 14 | November 07 »

Sunday, November 4

George W. Bush on V.I. Lenin

by Mike on Sun 04 Nov 2007 05:06 PM EST

ты мне ваньку не валяй
(Don’t make yourself more
stupid than you are.)

For the second time in just over a year, George W. Bush has decried the name of V.I Lenin, raising the specter of Lenin as a "boogeyman" in Bush's polymorphic "war on terror." His most recent jab at the revolutionary leader came during a November 1, 2007 speech at a so-called "conservative think tank":

"History teaches us that underestimating the words of evil, ambitious men is a terrible mistake," Mr. Bush said. "Bin Laden and his terrorist allies have made their intentions as clear as Lenin and Hitler before them. And the question is, will we listen?" (source)

Prior to this, Bush made similar comments during September 2006 speech:

"Bin Laden and his terrorist allies have made their intentions as clear as Lenin and Hitler before them," he said. (source)

It's hard to say why exactly George Bush has developed this tendency to lump Lenin in with the likes of Hitler and Bin Laden. At the height of McCarthyism, it was Joe Stalin who was a preferred target of scorn for red-baiting American demagogues. Then again, I suppose that for the duration of the Cold War, it was usually the current (living) Soviet Premier who was the focus of the bulk American ire and rhetoric. I guess it's always more effective to have a living boogeyman than a dead one. Even still, these days I would think that Stalin would be an "easier sell" as some sort of ghostly bad guy. It's obvious that critique of Chairman Mao is off-limits to the Bush propaganda machine so long as China is still willing provide scads and scads of low-cost, cheaply made trinkets to the teeming hordes of America's consumer class. But there's still Pol Pot or Kim Il Sung on the left. I think they might easier for Bush to cast in his "dead rogue's gallery" than, say, Pinochet or Mobutu who both rose to dictatorial power with the assistance of the United States Government.

My guess is that one of Bush's speech writers feels like "Dubya" will come across as more of an "intellectual" by avoiding old stand-by foils like Castro and Khomeini in favor of pre-Depression, anti-Bolshevik agitprop in the form of nebulous attacks on the life and legacy of Lenin. It's either that or Bush just really, really hates the Beatles.