What actually makes a politician 'Great'?

I am provoked to this meaningless meandering by a small story somewhere in the three tons of newsprint I collect on a Saturday morning concerning a small American airbase which was permitted to set up in the Ukraine during WWII.  Needless to say, it didn't last very long before Stalin and his apparatchiks froze it out despite its useful contribution to the war effort.  It served to remind me that Stalin was, perhaps, one of the greatest, all-time dimwits in history - and there are plenty of contenders for that over-crowded dais.  Apart from dragging his country almost back to the stone-age prior to the war, he had 'his silly trousers taken down' by an even bigger idiot, Adolf Hitler.  Takes one to spot one, I suppose!

The list, of course, is endless.  Skipping past the woeful Kaiser Wilhem II, one thinks of that jumped-up, little, Corsican thug, Napoleon Bonaparte.  Yet another twerp who thought that he could ride on to never-ending glory on the backs of his long-suffering army - and the impoverished peoples of Europe!  Ask what all these political 'plonkers' share and the answer is obvious - political systems that permit endless rule!  Yes, democracy is messy and untidy and throws up an enormous stream of inedequates but, and this is the crucial point, none of them can rule for ever!  Thus, is the damage that they cause limited in its scope.  We, 'The Peeps', still suffer extreme irritation but, glancing at the history of Russia or Germany or today just about anywhere in South America or Africa, we must fall to our knees and praise our stumble-bum predecessors who didn't so much invent democracy, as nail it together with a few old political planks!

Mind you, that doesn't mean we can ignore the possibility that even as I write, some swivel-eyed loon is planning to rule the world!  I am provoked to this tedious ramble by a minor disagreement I had with an old friend who suggested to me that 'Vlad the Impaler' was, from a Russian point of view, a wise, shrewd leader.  Not so, I disagreed, the wretched, jumped-up, little squit is stupid beyond measure.  Yes, he can prance and preen around various parts of the world but mostly they are parts that anyone else with more than three brain cells would avoid like the plague.  In the meantime his own country, over-loaded to the limits of its financial ability with ferociously expensive and mostly useless armaments, sinks back down to the Stalin era of yesteryear.  What's the Russian for 'totally useless egotist'?

Perhaps our collection of plonkers aren't that bad after all!

 

 

Comments

[Whitewall]

"What's the Russian for 'totally useless egotist'?"
The 'self licking ice cream cone'.

Timely, Europe from 1789-1989 plus 30

https://www.lawliberty.org/liberty-forum/beyond-the-ideological-lie-the-revolution-of-1989-thirty-years-later/

[Loz]

Good read in places, Whiters.

When he got to this bit ...

Poles are not “so easily free”: they must fight for it over and over again if need be. This was their fate, and their great privilege. This is far from the spirit of Kojève’s last man at the end of History, content with personal enjoyments and a post-historical descent into hedonism, softness, and self-indulgence.

... I say give me the "personal enjoyments and post-historical descent into hedonism, softness, and self-indulgence" over all that youthful trench digging I did on Salisbury plain any day!

And the writer being a bit of a Left Footer, he passes over this ...

Solzhenitsyn always insisted that there could be a despotism in the name of the soul

... with an air of "nothing to see here" - how about the unreformed Catholic Church of the middle ages, sunshine? Burn, baby, burn!

Then this ...

In Hungary, a talented statesman of impeccable anti-totalitarian credentials, Viktor Orbán

Mmm. "Your totalitarianism evil, mine good", three hail Marys, and a top o' the mornin' t'yez!

SoD

[Whitewall]

SoD, I thought you would enjoy that article. The Catholic Church of the middle ages brought the need for the Protestant Reformation 500 years ago. Too big will lead to too powerful, be it church, state or whatever. I suppose Hungary sees itself as recently free from communism only to be set upon by tyranny from the near West-EU; and from the south by Islam.

[Loz]

FFS ...

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/11/01/extinction-rebellion-protester-cleared-criminal-damage-arguing/

SoD

[Bob]

Yes, democracy is messy and untidy and throws up an enormous stream of inedequates but, and this is the crucial point, none of them can rule for ever! ... Perhaps our collection of plonkers aren't that bad after all!

Somehow a lesson has sunk in and our David has grown up! Democracy depends on inputs from all kinds of people. Some, like the current American president, are most likely certifyibly insane. But a democratic system allows counterbalance:

"Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time." - Winston Churchill, 11 November 1947

[David & Son of Duff]

Thank you, Daddy!

[Whitewall]

Bob, just a quibble. Trump is nowhere near insane. He is just himself. Trump is at long last bringing "counterbalance" to a government that has gone insane with power lust and entitlement. Don't confuse the unhinged and now exposed left's antics for Trump's.

[Whitewall]

Re Hungary again: they are under attack by Brussels.

https://legalinsurrection.com/2019/11/eu-official-poland-hungary-and-czech-republic-broke-eu-law-by-refusing-to-take-in-migrants/

[Bob]

Whitewall, professionals disagree:

https://dangerouscase.org/

I'm currently reading the book. As I understand it so far Trump has a number of conditions identifiable using forensic techniques. The head-shrinkers aren't doing a diagnosis, which they agree isn't possible without directly interviewing the subject, but comparing his actions and speech, of which there's plenty available, to those of people with known conditions. Supposedly his worst characteristic is "extreme present hedonism". That means he lives totally in the moment doing whatever feeds his ego and makes him feel good at that point. It explains the constant contradicting lies, among other things.

[Up2L8]

"PROFESSIONALS" HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Thanks Bob,I needed a good laff today.

[David & Son of Duff]

In my opinion, anyone who takes 'psycho-babblers' seriously is in serious need of a 'psycho-babbler'!

[Bob]

Up2L8,

Thank you, thank you. I'll be here all week. Don't forget to tip your server.

David,

Good diagnosis for an amateur.

[Whitewall]

Well, Trump has a couple of traits, not conditions, that the previous President had. Those being thin skinned and narcissistic. It is taking a Trump to cause DC and its "deep state" keepers to reveal themselves.