Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

August 22, 2008

According to Leon Aron of the neo-conservative American Enterprise Institute, the conflict between Russia and Georgia illustrates that Moscow is in the grip of a dangerous militaristic ideology he calls ?Putinism.?

Named after Russia?s former president and current Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, that ideology, as Aron defines it, displays five chief characteristics:

*A ?personal system of power in which the `national leader? rather than democratic institutions rule;

*relentless state propaganda focusing on traumatic national loss;

*the idea of Russia as a besieged fortress surrounded by ruthless and tireless enemies;

*a mania for espionage and surveillance;

*denigration of the political opposition as ?fifth column? traitors.

There is a great deal of evidence to support Aron?s argument that Russia is in the grip of that ideology. But it is likewise true that post-9/11 America has been in the grip of an ideology we might call ?Bushism,? which displays exactly the same characteristics and is just as inimical to freedom.

Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.