The War on Critics: Stalin's Gulags to Trump’s America
Hey y'all! Blog entry #3 COMPLETE… While I was thinking on what to write about I had remembered a paper on gulags I had written just last year. I wrote about instilling fear in political opponents and this inspired me to connect the similarities between the Soviet government and present-day America.
Over centuries, powerful leaders have continuously silenced and crushed their political opponents. A particular dictator, Joseph Stalin, ravaged his lands and the enemies of his regime by placing them in inhumane gulags. In the modern era, the U.S.A’s current leader, Donald Trump, is also attacking and targeting his opponents through the media. Although both heads of state use different forms of political suppression, they both have the same drive, to instill fear in the public.
During the height of the Soviet Union, gulags were used as a system of forced labor and death camps. Most who were sent there were accused of being an “intellectual” or a suspected traitor. In these brutal conditions most died through starvation, disease and were victims of being overworked in the harsh northern conditions. These complicated networks were tools used by Stalin and the Soviet Union to eliminate dissent, instill fear, and have absolute power over their country. Eventually this harsh form of punishment backfired on the Soviets as it caused internal rebellion against the government after Stalin's death.
Along similar lines, President Trump strives for the doom of his political opponents but instead of using gulags he personally insults them and labels them as enemies of the institution. On April 3rd Trump had a mass firing spree, dismissing 17 federal inspector generals who investigate government crimes, without mandatory 30-day notice. In Trump's eyes these generals were seen to be disloyal and independent because they were willing to question him on his accountability. This incident intimidated and terrified anyone who even began to think and speak out about Trump's crimes. The firing was a tactic to silence anyone who posed a threat against his regime, not through prison but through public humiliation and threats.
Although both leaders use different schemes, either prisons or pressure, both ultimately accomplished silencing and intimidating the opposition. The scale that the Soviets used is substantially more harsh, using forced labor and executions, than Trump's approach. I believe that these tactics pose a threat to the public, not allowing them to voice and investigate their opinions. This diminishes the ideologies of The Constitution and the foundation of what America is built on. Without thought provoking opinion can we even call ourselves a true democracy?
Done for now, history endures…
- Emilia Sanchez