Thursday, July 13, 2006

Gorby laments America's "winner's complex"

From Newsmax:
Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev says Americans have a disease "worse than AIDS” – the insistence on imposing a U.S.-style democracy in Russia.

A decade and a half after a coup removed him from power and the U.S.S.R. collapsed, Gorbachev spoke with an ABC News correspondent about American’s criticism of Russian democracy as President Bush prepared to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G-8 conference in St. Petersburg.

"We have made some mistakes. So what?” Gorbachev said. "Please don’t put even more obstacles in our way. Do you think you were smarter than we are?
Though the question was presumably rhetorical, I shall answer it nonetheless: "Um...yes. We are much smarter than you are. It didn't take us over seven decades and 20+ million butchered citizens to figure out that communism was an abject failure. That alone makes us considerably smarter than you are." Continuing:
"Americans have a severe disease – worse than AIDS. It’s called the winner’s complex. You want an American-style democracy here [Russia]. That will not work.”
Other victims of "winner's complex" are Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale (who, like Gorby, were metaphorically "assaulted" by Reagan's "complex"), as well as Michael Dukakis, Al Gore, and John Kerry. Perhaps some of the architects at the Crush Liberalism Objective World News Service (CLOWNS) can erect a monument to commemorate other losers victims of "winner's complex" who would otherwise undoubtedly be forgotten in the trash bin of history. We'll look into it.