To which dictator does g. w. bush most merit comparison?

[0rganism]

Since we are apparently verbotten from comparing the bush regime to that of Adolf Hitler in mainstream American press, here are some other comparative possibilities. Select the bloodthirsty powermonger whose abuse of civil liberties, contempt for human rights, laughably imperialist foreign policy, manipulation of the press, and/or destruction of social safeguards seems most enlightening when compared to that of the spotus, or write in another of your choosing.

[Cat Atomic]

1. I say Franco.

Falangism... appeals to religious extremists.... pandering to various centers of corporate power.

[0rganism]

2. Oh yes, Franco is such fun, isn't he?

Definitely in my top 3.

[ironflange]

23. Let's not forget. . .

General Franco is still dead.

[wuushew]

3. I don't believe W. is a true dictator in the classical sense

Main Entry: dic·ta·tor
Pronunciation: 'dik-"tA-t&r, dik-'
Function: noun
Etymology: Latin, from dictare
Date: 14th century
1 a : a person granted absolute emergency power; especially : one appointed by the senate of ancient Rome b : one holding complete autocratic control c : one ruling absolutely and often oppressively
2 : one that dictates


Is not a dictator one who wields power without effective restraint by other parties? In the United States the Congress and the courts still APPEAR to have the power to stop some of the executive branch's actions. The problem is not that they do not have the power to stop shrub, but rather they AGREE with shrub and his right wing policies. The imperial senate certainly did not care for a great deal of the Roman emperors but without effective command of the army or the masses what power did they have?

[0rganism]

5. Looks like he fits 1a pretty well, if you ask me

You tell me what check and balance there is on the Patriot act other than the easily-revokeable sunset clause, and maybe we have a discussion. The power to unilaterally engage in wars at will, the power to arbitrarily and indefinitely detain anyone at all without trial, hell, if that isn't absolute emergency powers I sure don't want to see the real thing. Just because We The People voted for a weak-kneed congress that eventually rubber stamped bush's apotheosis doesn't make it any less complete.

Not that we're supposed to compare bush to Hitler, but Hitler ascended to the Chancellorship by means of his nazi party receiving a plurality in the German parliament. After the Reichstag fire, he began to solidify the autocratic power base with a series of national security "offers you can't refuse" to the Germans, who more or less went along with it. After all, they voted for the nazis, they liked the nazis more than the alternatives, and bingo! There you have it.

So unless you want to contend that Hitler wasn't a dictator, you may have to revise your notion of the term.

[wuushew]

7. The country is run by a cabal not a dictator

Saddam Hussein was not loved by Iraqi's nor was Hitler by many many Germans. Unfortunately in Selection 2000 nearly half the voting public voted for him. An absolute dictator commands by personal edict a great number of things which involve him personally. Bush does not do that. Dictators delegate power to subordinates and rely on loyalty and the use of force to impliment policy. Bush did not know previously many of his cabinet members. They agree to work with because they share the common goal of greed and the destruction of liberal ideas of state. We are not fighting a man so much as the cancer of rightwing ideology. What difference does it make if Bush wins, looses or is othwise removed from office the underlying problems that lead to his rise are still prevalent in this country.

[Karenina]

8. There ya go!!!

:thumbsup: *Dimson is a plastic blow-up doll, so obviously inept that the comparison in some ways actually protects the REAL ENEMY from being identified.

[worldgonekrazy]

28. You hit the nail on the head

I really think that they picked the Dim Son precisely because he is an idiot. Half the American public loves him for it (because they despise intellectuals for some fucking insane reason) and it also completely hides the fact that his administration is EVIL. When they do shit like the Iraq War people shake their heads and muse at how stupid the administration is, when in fact the whole thing was a nefarious plot to further a number of sinister causes.

[Zhade]

24. To extend your point further - Bush is replaceable.

The question is, who does the cabal have lined up as a fallback puppet (or, worse, puppets)?

[wickerwoman]

4. Caligula? Maybe Nero.

He certainly believes he's the agent of God's will if not God himself and he fiddled his ass off on that plane while New York burned.

[UTUSN]

13. Caligula

Caligula: It took the Romans "three years, ten months and eight days" to get to know the real Caligula. This would take us to, uh, November 2004.

******QUOTE*****
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/suetonius-caligula.html

.... rearing a viper for the Roman people and a Phaethon (": a son of Helios who drives his father's sun-chariot through the sky but loses control and is struck down by a thunderbolt of Zeus") for the world. ....

.... he poisoned Tiberius, as some think, and ordered that his ring be taken from him while he still breathed ....

.... By thus gaining the throne he fulfilled the highest hopes of the Roman people, or I may say of all mankind, since he was the prince most earnestly desired by the great part of the provincials and soldiers, many of whom had known him in his infancy ....

.... He even used openly to deplore the state of his times, because they had been marked by no public disasters,.....and every now and then he wished for the destruction of his armies, for famine, pestilence, fires, or a great earthquake. ....

.... ruled three years, ten months and eight days ....
*****UNQUOTE****

[SlavesandBulldozers]

6. Sauron

n/t

[fujiyama]

36. Nah, he's more of the puppet...

Saruman would be a better fit.

[pretzel4gore]

9. papa doc duvalier...

a sailor friend once mentioned listening to radio 'free haiti' back in 60's and all there was on was a constant moaning 'papa doctor...papa doctor..papa doctor etc' hour after hour, day after day, for years! Thaty's what's coming with our whoremedia (!)

[Octafish]

34. Poppy Doc Bush and Baby Doc Bush.

You got it, pretzel'!

True story: I met Jean Bertrand-Aristide after he was deposed by the generals in the early 90s when he came to speak at the Cranbrook Peace Foundation in metro Detroit.

Aristide said all Bush had to do was pick up the phone and the generals would quit their coup and the first democratically elected leader of Haiti in 75 years would be returned to power. Bush didn't and Aristide wasn't until Clinton, many years and lives later.

The reason for Poppy Doc Bush's inaction? Aristide said that the generals were deep into the wholesale cocaine importation business. Now who would be their partner in all that?

PS: The turd Jesse Helms called Aristide, during this period, a murderer who necklaced his victims. That's odd, because Aristide is a former Catholic priest who survived an assassination attempt during Mass. He wasn't really into Liberation Theology, but believed that the people deserve more than the scraps. In Haiti, 99 percent of the property is owned by 1 percent of the population. Sounds like the US is heading in the same direction under Baby Doc Bush.

[radwriter0555]

10. HItler. Just like hitler, bush was appointed, not elected.

Barbed wire around towns, like the warsaw ghetto? Like iraqi villages? Guantanamo Bay? HITLER.

[Robb]

11. Pre-emptive military strikes...

...the list goes on. Saw that poor SOB on H&C last night get f-in' spanked for trying to point out the parallels. He was too weak to keep up.

"So you don't think the comparison is absurd?"

"Well, look at history, Hitler - "

"You think Bush and Hitler are exactly the same."

"I think you can see where - "

"How do you expect anyone to take you seriously? You're saying the biggest mass murderer in the history of the planet is just like the president of the United States?"

"If you look at - "

"Don't you love America?"

etc. etc. etc. :eyes:

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

12. I vote for Emperor Constantine

Because he imposed Christianity on all his subjects.

[newyawker99]

21. Hi ChavezSpeakstheTruth!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[rman]

16. Hitler, since both made use of (abused) existing democracy

to come to power.

For all i know Hitler was elected, and then appointed himself as the fearless leader that had to be followed blindly.

[Selwynn]

37. Give me a break.

I'd like you have you be a jew and experience nazi germany 1939, then say that with a straight fucking face.

[EdGy]

14. Slobodan Milosevic. Here's why

i've spent a lot of time in the Balkans.

What has most struck me over the past few years is how similar Bush's style and strategy of ruling is to that of Milosevic.

Concocting enemies in order to browbeat the opposition. Starting wars and portraying his country as innocent victim. Viciously smearing his opponents. You name it, anything Bush and Rove are doing seems to come straight out of Milosevic's play book.

Another interesting thing: Serbs I know who have been in the US are shocked when they see Fox News.

All of them, without exception, say it is eerily similar to Milosevic's own state-controlled television network.

Here's a great article that documents the reactions of Serbian journalists who spent time in GW Bush's America:

http://russbaker.com/TOMPAINE%20-%20'Lovely%20Outrage'.htm
'Lovely Outrage'
Blunt Words About the Soft Press

New York-based Russ Baker is an award-winning journalist who
covers politics and media.

I was asked to provide on-the-job training in investigative reporting to a group of young Serbian journalists in Belgrade. The group had just returned from the United States where, on the invitation of the U.S. government, they were able to observe freedom of the press at work in American newsrooms.

<snip>

As for the Fox News Channel, its daily fare sounded suspiciously like the rabidly nationalistic, pro-Milosevic propaganda the Serbs are still trying to flush out of the system here.

Indeed, for my Slavic colleagues, the Bush administration's stirring up of patriotic fervor around security issues was unpleasantly reminiscent of the way Slobodan Milosevic incited nationalist sentiment among the Serbs, in the build-up to a war that left hundreds of thousands dead and a region in tatters. Yet the American press seemed to be doing little to call Washington to task on this issue. Several of these young journalists said that the average Serb heard more critical reporting about Milosevic during the height of his power here than the average American hears about the Bush White House today.

<more>

[Kathy in Cambridge]

19. I agree with you there

I have friends that have spent time in Serbia and other former Yugoslav republics and say the same thing.

[sweetheart]

15. Marie Antoinette

Certainly hitler, but of course...

[eissa]

17. Marcos

Out of touch with the people; more interested in lining his pockets (and those of his cronies) than the welfare of citizens. Puts on a Christian face when his actions are contrary to those practiced by true believers (tolerance, peacefulness, goodwill towards others, etc.).

[Snow]

33. Second that!

Lived under Park Chunghee, Noh Taewoo and Chun Doohwan - Bush bears no resemblance to Park, who was a rather austere man, looks a bit more like Noh and Chun - but looks more like Marcos than anyone else. A thief.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

18. King George III

You know, the one who wrote in his diary on July 4, 1776, "Nothing of importance occurred today." He went blithely on his way ignoring all but the lackeys who kept telling him everything is just fine.

DumbSon is looked upon by many in almost monarchical reverence and he is surrounded by sly and sinister beings who plot out policy that is bringing the "empire" to destruction. Waging what they perceive as little safe wars that will ensure that the people are patriotic and subservient. That the "little", "safe", wars are ineffective and expensive in lives and fortune to the country is overshadowed by the strutting monarch who smirks and believes his advisors and a slavish press while the world turns in a different direction because of his ignorant posturing.

[0rganism]

20. a bump, so that others may vote

So far, Mussolini has the lead, with Franco a close second.

[DinahMoeHum]

22. Methinks it was Mussolini who once said that "facism". . .

should really be called "corporatism"


:evilfrown:

[loudnclear]

25. I say Hitler!

This country is very, very similar to Nazi Germany under Hitler's reign and getting more like it every day.

[Hubert Flottz]

26. Joey Stalin and the KGB boys!

Joey S had to have secret sweeping powers like Bush has! Maybe we can name Kennybumfuk Maine Shrubiegrad! Joey S liked to play Dressie Uppie in uniforms too! Ivan the Terrible would be proud of them both!

[smirkymonkey]

30. I agree with you...

Hitler's name looms so large in our iconography, that most people think it's too much of a stretch, but the comparisons are eerily similar.

[0rganism]

31. Sure, but we really need to find someone else

Unless you've had your head under a rock, you've seen what happens when someone publicly compares bush to Hitler. Apt comparison? Sure. But timely? No.

The Simon Weisenthal Center is going to have a much harder time getting into a snit over a comparison to Franco.

[DarkSim]

39. I completely agree

Yes i think it was about time someone said that.

[ldoolin]

27. Manuel Noriega

Here's why:

1. Puppet "free" elections, which are annulled by the courts if the people don't vote the way he wants.

2. Cocaine. I bet Shrub knows a *lot* about that subject.

3. U.S.: "I want more power. Congress, pass another expansion of the Patriot Act." Panama: "I want more power. National Assembly, pass another expansion of Law 20."

4. U.S.: Free Republic, border vigilantes, wise users, etc. Panama: Dignity Battallions.

5. Noriega's best buddy in the U.S. govt. was daddy Bush starting with Bush's putting Noriega on the CIA payroll in 1976, up until the point that Noriega became too much of an embarassment after a Florida court indicted him on drug trafficking charges.

6. I am the maximum leader!!!

7. Nepotism, graft, and corruption. (In the dictionary for those words it says: "see Halliburton")

8. Drumming up propaganda against imagined external and internal threats. It's the liberals! It's the Arnulfistas! It's Islamofascism! It's the bogeyman trying to take back our canal!

Just call him Dubya "La Pina" Shrub.

[worldgonekrazy]

29. I think you are right

I voted for Mussolini, but that was before I saw your post. Noriega is an excellent comparison made all the more poignant by his associations with the BFEE.

[GOPBasher]

32. I say Busholini.

Oops, I mean, I think Bush most closely resembles Mussolini.

[Skittles]

35. definitely Mussolini

just the smirk alone nails it

[DarkSim]

38. I Think he is Similar to Bobrikov

I believe W. is similar to the pre WW2 "dictator" of Finland Michaili Bobrikov.

both screw/screwed the people, both are/were "dictators" of nations, both have abused the working class to get the privileged even more rich, both filled the peoples heads with excessive lies and hollow promises.


I think Bobrikov and W. are much the same.