I've been traveling, and (blissfully) somewhat detached from events. But I have some questions about Trump/GOP/Russia/Treason. Not about the facts, which are clear, or the nature of Putin's hold on Trump; we just don't know (yet). I want to know about precedents 1/
I mean, here we have a superpower's head of state clearly a puppet not just of a foreign power but of a foreign power that is much smaller and weaker than we are. And it's not just Trump: Russian influence evidently reached deep into the GOP 2/
And even more remarkable is the willingness of the whole Congressional GOP to go along with the obvious, ongoing betrayal of U.S. interests. Not one important players has offered anything more than a few sad tweets. 3/
So my first question is, is there anything like this in history? Certainly not in America: we've had traitors, but never at this level. You can, perhaps, get a bit closer in some European experiences: some countries had fascist politicians colluding with the Axis pre-WWII 4/
And treason was a thing in ancient Greek city-states, typically collusion with the Persians. But Persia was a superpower, versus small Greek polities; colluding with a small power when your own country is far bigger is new in history, I think 5/
So what's going on here? The record seems to say that the modern Republican party is something special: corrupt and disloyal not simply to a degree unprecedented in American history, but as far as I can tell, in all history. Am I missing something? 6/
And the question then becomes, why? America isn't or wasn't obviously a collapsing state; the GOP's supporters were hardly oppressed by historical standards (and its rich donors have done very well). So why this willingness to break all norms, including basic patriotism? 7/
I don't know the answer, but it seems like an essential question to ask, because even if democracy survives Trump -- which is far from guaranteed -- the GOP is clearly ready to do it all over again 8/
