COMPARING VIEWPOINTS

"America is like a healthy body and its resistance is threefold: its patriotism, its morality, and its spiritual life. If we can undermine these three areas, America will collapse from within."


"They get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them... as a way to explain their frustrations."


By now, every person on the planet knows who authored the second quote:  then-Presidential-candidate Barack H. Obama, speaking at a San Francisco fund-raising dinner in April, 2008.
But do you know the author of the eerily similar former quotation?  Let me give you a few hints:


He quickly rose from relative obscurity to become his country's most powerful leader.
He transformed governmental and economic policies in his country.
He was merciless to his political rivals and enemies.
He orchestrated questionable policies toward adversarial countries.
He frequently acted without normal governmental approval nor established procedures.
He initiated several "five-year" economic improvement plans.
He markedly increased the role of Government in business, healthcare, and citizens' personal lives.
He promised "unity" to his constituents, but brought about extensive repression of contrary opinions.
His efforts to "improve" his country led to nationwide famines and economic upheaval.


His regime was completely denounced by his successors.


Who would speak of America in such a fashion, and who would have his thoughts so echoed by an American Presidential candidate?  Give up?
The answer:  Joseph V. Stalin, first General Secretary of the Communist Party, and Lenin's successor as Premier of the Soviet Union.


And how's your coffee smelling today?

-neon leon