History lesson

The passing of Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev took me back three decades to the - take your pick - turn of the century/ end of the USSR/ end of the Cold War. Francis Fukuyama went so far as to call it the end of history and President George H W Bush took a victory lap before going on to lose his re-election bid. I don't intend to either glorify or vilify the last Soviet leader but to see if we can all get a lesson in history out of his life. I am not referring to his rise through the ranks of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union to the top but to the end of that career. Like him or not - and most people appear indifferent if not outright unaware of him - I posit that he was unlike all his predecessors in that job. His promotion to the top implied that the system acknowledged a need for change. However, as time passed, it became clear that he was ahead of his times. The changes he had in mind were too much too soon for some in the Party who were not ready for glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring). Withdrawal of Soviet troops from East Germany apparently in response to Western pressure was easy to interpret as capitulation. Long story short, there was an unsuccessful coup by a clique of hardliners followed by a successful one by Boris Yeltsin who elevated Vladimir Putin to Prime Minister. The rest, as they say, is history.

What can we learn from this? Why was Gorbachev unable to carry out the changes he seemed to have in mind for the USSR? The reason, in my opinion, was a lack of democratic institutions in a system which was insulated from the people by the monopoly of power by the Party. Upward mobility was restricted to Party membership. Dissent, meaning opinion different from the Party line, was unthinkable. Educational curricula were dictated by the Party. Most importantly, elections were run by the Party with only Party members running for all posts. Ironically, this is again where Russia is today. The difference is that the Party has been replaced by Putin. What does this have to do with us, you say? To borrow the words of Neil Diamond, except for the names and a few other changes, this is where we are headed. I don't believe it is an exaggeration to say that if Trump and MAGA Republicans have their way, the US could change beyond recognition as soon as after the election of November 2022. True, there are glimmers of hope in the build-up to the election. We middle-of-the-roaders must not let ill-advised optimism make us ease up in our efforts. Make sure your voter registration is current. Volunteer for poll duty. Talk to like-minded family, friends and co-workers to do the same. And do not vote for any candidate who questions the result of the last election. Totalitarianism is not something that happens only in other countries. And if it gets in it will be very difficult to get out. We still have free and fair elections, democratic institutions and a system which has been developed over almost 250 years by the cumulative efforts and experiences of men and women from all parts of the political spectrum. We must not take these blessings for granted. It is time to treat this like the existential threat that it is.