Never forget that autocrats are ultimately failures. When they make mistakes, those mistakes are often enormous. Consider Putin: Faced with an aging and declining population, he got the brilliant idea that the perfect solution was to create a war with a large neighboring country with a similar language and culture, who could have been a large market for a peaceful neighbor. Instead, the war is killing tens of thousands of young men and women from both countries, thus accelerating both the aging and the decline of Russia’s population while destroying what could have been a lucrative market for his country’s economy.

Why are autocrats so stupid? Because they surround themselves with people who are afraid to challenge their ideas. See the similarities to our current administration? Look at the sheer brilliance of combining a) tariffs, b) thoughtlessly attacking the immigrant communities across the country which supply millions of workers, and c) a tax bill that inflates the deficit even further.

Everyone around him tells President Trump he’s brilliant. Everyone around Putin tells him he’s brilliant. Everyone around King George III told him he was brilliant as well. We know how that turned out.

Dennis Perkins
Winslow