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Notes -
I do consider Harris and the people surrounding her incompetent but I see certain important differences.
Harris wants to double down on the elements of the regime and push things in a more totalitarian direction.
Gorbachev wanted to strongly reform aspects of it although he didn't want the USSR to fall.
Also Gorbachev was more in control, until he wasn't, while Kamala is less independent.
In my opinion people like Harris and the general elites of this type, represent more the leaders of USSR prior to Gorbachev. Incompetent, but authoritarian. Unlike them they are willing to double down in authoritarianism, and are more radical so maybe she has both parallels with earlier Communists and those of the time of stagnation. Although, the system is more oligarchical and the central figure is less important.
Someone who isn't out to be a revolutionary but sincerely wants to positively reform the regime and not in a 50 Stalin anti-dissident direction, without desiring to dismantle it, but in a manner that will cause its end, will fit more to the Gorbachev role.
Edit: Although doubling down in the areas Harris wants to double down, could lead eventually to a collapse. Or it could lead to a 1990s and after South Africa situation of the same and similar but more radical types in charge, of an increasingly failing society. This counts as a collapse in important ways even though similar type of elites are in charge but admittedly South African elites exercise less control over some parts of the country.
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