- Joined
- Jun 18, 2018
- Messages
- 38,696
- Reaction score
- 31,290
- Gender
- Male
- Political Leaning
- Progressive
"What does Putin want? His aims go well beyond Ukraine. As the Atlantic’s Anne Applebaum summarizes: He “wants to put so much strain on Western and democratic institutions, especially the European Union and NATO, that they break up. He wants to keep dictators in power wherever he can, in Syria, Venezuela, and Iran. He wants to undermine America, to shrink American influence, to remove the power of the democracy rhetoric that so many people in his part of the world still associate with America. He wants America itself to fail.”
Trump’s foreign policy sought to do much of what Putin wants to achieve, including intimidating Ukraine by withholding vital defensive weapons. Trump, like his role model in Moscow, favored weakening NATO, elevating dictators (from China to Turkey to North Korea to Hungary to Russia), undermining democratic elections, demonizing the media (the best check against power-hungry politicians) and finding common ground with kleptocratic-style governments.
...Certainly, there is a disconnect on the right, with many Republicans in the Senate trying to find some way to blame President Biden for insufficient resolve in opposing Putin’s invasion scheme. (Republicans in disarray!) But just a couple of years ago, these Republicans were perfectly content supporting a president who extorted Ukraine to get dirt on Biden, tried to welcome Russia back into the Group of Seven, provided cover for Russian interference in the 2016 election and parroted Russian propaganda on Crimea. It takes quite a feat of contortion for these Republicans to remain defenders of Trump and deplore his successor for not doing enough to stand up to Putin."
Link
The only difference is, Putin attacks a foreign country, Trump attacks his own country's democratic institutions.
Trump’s foreign policy sought to do much of what Putin wants to achieve, including intimidating Ukraine by withholding vital defensive weapons. Trump, like his role model in Moscow, favored weakening NATO, elevating dictators (from China to Turkey to North Korea to Hungary to Russia), undermining democratic elections, demonizing the media (the best check against power-hungry politicians) and finding common ground with kleptocratic-style governments.
...Certainly, there is a disconnect on the right, with many Republicans in the Senate trying to find some way to blame President Biden for insufficient resolve in opposing Putin’s invasion scheme. (Republicans in disarray!) But just a couple of years ago, these Republicans were perfectly content supporting a president who extorted Ukraine to get dirt on Biden, tried to welcome Russia back into the Group of Seven, provided cover for Russian interference in the 2016 election and parroted Russian propaganda on Crimea. It takes quite a feat of contortion for these Republicans to remain defenders of Trump and deplore his successor for not doing enough to stand up to Putin."
Link
The only difference is, Putin attacks a foreign country, Trump attacks his own country's democratic institutions.
