On December 22, 1989, Communist President of Romania Nicolae Ceaușescu was overthrown by Ion Iliescu after days of bloody confrontations. The deposed dictator and his wife fled Bucharest with a helicopter as protesters erupted in cheers.
The couple was quickly caught and, on Christmas day, tried by a military tribunal and executed by firing squad.
1 reply on “Dictator Overthrown”
Until Ceaușescu and his wife were in front of a firing squad, they were sure that the revolutionaries would not actually execute them.
What I remember most about the Ceaușescu regime is that, long before Barack Obama, they used the argument of you-didn’t-build-that, specifically in the case of education. The regime argued that its citizens could not leave without compensation to the state, because the state had educated them — basically, “You didn’t build you!”
Well, Nick and Barry, you can’t use the violent power of the state to crowd-out private provision, and then claim a debt on the part of consumers.