Turkey’s President and The Immortals
Today Turkish President Erdogan added a scary new requirement to be regarded a dictator. One must be immortal. In denying the Turkish referendum granting him enormous powers, reducing other branches of government to irrelevancy, Erdogan denied being a dictator because:
“I am a mortal really, I could die at any time.”
It is true. He is mortal. He could die at anytime. Of course, this was also true for other notorious dictators who presumably have died, Stalin, Lenin, Hitler, Franco, etc. Perhaps Erdogan’s hidden message is that they are not really dead. For to be a dictator is to be immortal.
Back in the day, a young Chevy Chase on Saturday Night Live’s “Weekend Update” always got laughs by the running gag proclaiming “Our top story tonight: General Franco is still dead.”
Maybe Chevy got it wrong.
