In 1989 a religious leader László Tőkés criticised Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu and was threatened and beaten up. Romanians protesting were gunned down by Ceausescu’s soldiers. Protests broke out everywhere.
Ceausescu, a megalomaniacal egotist who had destroyed opponents and surrounded himself with yes-men and sycophants, was now so enabled that he believed he was invincible and fatuously believed that a single televised mass rally that played pre-recorded cheering over loudspeakers would ‘restore his image’. On the day of the rally, he stood with his wife Elena on the balcony that faced onto Bucharest’s Palace Square (now called Revolution Square), packed with people, many of whom had been bussed in. The sounds of cheering were deafening. From the speakers.
But not from the people. Shortly into the speech, sounds of screaming and shouting came from the crowd. Ceausescu realised they weren’t part of the sound track. Elena heard gun shots, then guards shouted that protestors had broken into the building down below, beneath the balcony.
Ceausescu and Elena yelled at the crowd and guards managed to keep them back. But after the rally, protesters spilled out onto the streets of Bucharest, filled with frustration and rage at too many years of suppression and savage dictatorship. Ceausescu unleashed tanks, soldiers, police and his own secret army – much like Trump’s ICE – on the crowds with brutal violence. By morning there was so much blood on the streets that fire engines had to hose them down.
Blind to the country-wide hatred for him, Ceausescu thought the danger was over. He was wrong. The next day, protesters moved en masse towards the centre of Bucharest, joined by the soldiers and police, who now refused to follow orders given to shoot them.
A panicked Ceausescu and his wife Elena escaped in a helicopter from the roof, with two officials and two bodyguards, minutes before protesters reached it. The pilot took them to their residence in Snagov, where Ceausescu ordered two more helicopters with soldiers as an escort. The response? You’re on your own. The pilot took off immediately, without the officials.
Then a message played on the radio that all flights were grounded and unidentified aircraft in the air would be shot. They had to land. The pilot put the pair down on a road with just two security guards. They managed to flag down a car, whose driver took them to an agricultural institute on the outskirts of Târgoviște and persuaded them to hide in it. It was a trap. They were locked in then arrested and handed over to a military barracks where they were tried.
Even during this sham trial, Ceausesceu laughed scornfully, still believing he was invincible. He wasn’t not though. Found guilty, he and Elena were executed by firing squad.
The circumstances leading to their execution has some chilling similarities to the US at the moment. It’s hard to know who is directing everything but Trump is the public face and he’s the one with the power. An over-entitled megalomaniac, felon, adjudicated rapist and serial liar, he too has surrounded himself with sycophants who shield him from the reality of how unpopular he is. He’s choosing to let ICE tactics become increasingly savage and lawless, watching Americans’ outrage grow exponentially, believing he can turn that into a justification to declare a state of emergency and martial law.
And cancel the mid-terms to avoid impeachment, trial and jail. The cynicism is jaw-dropping. There are a couple of things he hasn’t thought about though. He’s as unpopular as Ceausescu was and his base is diminishing. His own party writhes under his stranglehold, longing to be rid of him because being loyal means betraying angry constituents. Also, lot of people in the military and police do not want to visit misery on regular Americans, or see their democracy destroyed. They certainly don’t want to be the tools. The momentum to get rid of Trump is growing visibly by the day – from politicians to people in the streets – and though Trump is trying hard to destroy the free press and present a false narrative, he isn’t succeeding with the majority.
Ceausescu’s Achilles heel was his entitlement and oblivion to how much his own people wanted to get rid of him. They had clearly plotted behind his back for some time. It’s the consequence of surrounding yourself with yes-men and women. It also never occurred to him that the good men and women in the military and police would refuse orders. Trump, hell bent on using the military in the same way, would probably face the same kind of rebellion, then where would he be?
He would do well to read up on history.
Obviously he wouldn’t be put on a sham trial or face a literal firing squad,
but a real trial ending in a jail cell would be better, anyway.
