The growing doubts and hesitatations of many Americans about our major and not clearly defined commitment to Ukraine, as expressed indirectly by a minority of 11 Republican Senators and 57 Republican Representatives, or by Republican Libertarian politician Rand Paul … cannot simply be dismissed as playing into Putin’s hands. We are a democracy and matters of war must be discussed openly!
There are manic militaristic political forces that think Putin’s bloody and failing war in Ukraine is a great opportunity to destroy the unstable Russian Federation completely, warmongers who want the Ukrainians to wage an endless proxy war on behalf of Wall Street interests. They almost disregard the cost in human suffering, the threat of WWIII, and they ridicule the pressing need for the U.S. to outline a diplomatic compromise.
On the other hand, Tucker Carlson and Donald Trump are indeed lowlife demagogues who at least psychologically identify with “strongman” Putin’s reactionary authoritarianism. Trump himself is an unstable narcissist who will do or say anything to get back in power. His fanatic followers are mostly unable to discern the danger he represents to our Republic.
Most of the new grifter politicians Trump attracts to his wing of the Republican Party don’t really care about anything but their own interests. But we must absolutely not dismiss all Trump supporters as hopeless, or as “pro-Putin traitors,” any more than we should consider all Democrats as “liberal imperialists” or “corporate globalists.” That would be giving in to the prevailing stupidity and hyper-partisanship of American politics.
www.rollingstone.com
