Republican leadership is actively rooting for failing/flailing petrostate ruled by unhinged autocrat to invade & conquer thriving democracy on edge of NATO allies, consumed by mix of hope it will hurt Biden & lustful support for unhinged autocracy.
There are no easy/obvious good answers to Russian aggression against Ukraine, but actively supporting Russia’s invasion, as many Republican leaders are doing both implicitly & explicitly, is one clear wrong answer.
In world of difficult choices, Biden aggressively arming Ukraine, pushing sanctions & tough negotiations with Putin, while ensuring our military is safely not engaged, is a pretty good response.
Like so many other situations: mainstream media letting Republicans attack Democratic policy, without offering any other viable policy. That is not useful or meaningful. That is not how opposition should work in a functioning democracy.
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Republican position of cheerleading Russian autocrat Putin's invasion of the sovereign democracy Ukraine, while advocating for our potential invasions of Canada and/or Mexico is unique mix of insane, absurd, unpopular, dangerous for US.
Republicans will argue that public cheerleading of Russian invasion of Ukraine & possible US invasion of Mexico come from Trump, and that they are sadly unfamiliar w/ any words that come out of his mouth, but since he their Dear Leader & likely 2024 nominee, I take him seriously.
Imagine telling someone just a few years ago that autocratic Russia would invade a neighboring democracy and (1) Republicans would be rooting for a bloody Russian victory (2) Democrats would be for sending military aid to democracy, sanctions, but against US military engagement.
Likely 2024 Republican nominee: "I said, 'This is genius.' Putin declares a big portion of the Ukraine - of Ukraine. Putin declares it as independent. Oh, that's wonderful. So Putin is now saying, "It's independent,' a large section of Ukraine. I said, 'How smart is that?' 1/6
Likely 2024 Republican nominee (con't): And he's gonna go in and be a peacekeeper. That's strongest peace force... We could use that on our southern border. That's the strongest peace force I've ever seen. There were more army tanks than I've ever seen. 2/6
Likely 2024 Republican nominee (con't): They're going to keep peace all right. No, but think of it. Here's a guy who's very savvy... I know him very well. Very, very well. By the way, this never would have happened with us. Had I been in office, not even thinkable. 3/6
Somehow there are members of the mainstream media that treat Republican "concerns" about Biden's *yet-to-be-named* pick for the Supreme Court as good faith concerns.
Beyond the casual racism & misogyny of Republican "concerns" over Biden's *yet-to-be-named* pick for the Supreme Court: any person who backed any/all of Trump's three *super tainted* nominees has no standing to question the legitimacy of Biden's process.
Also, good to know Republicans are concerned about Supreme Court justices rewriting the Constitution as the Republican Supreme Court allowed bounties to overturn access to women's healthcare and is now spurring book banning laws around the country ...
Shorter @Nate_Cohn: confidence in economy tanks with Biden's approval, and Biden's approval tanks in August. And, I would argue Biden's approval tanked in August due to Mainstream Media's 20 day onslaught of anti-Biden headlines around Biden's withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Biden, following Trump's plan, withdrew our military ahead of the 20 year anniversary of the war in Afghanistan: we could have knocked Al Qaeda out and come home, but Bush/Obama/Trump spent nearly 20 years in futile national building.
Mainstream media loved their war though, they were so sad at the prospect of the US not being in a major war! So, when Biden pulled out our military, demonstrating how 20 years had been wasted on a paper government & army, they got mad at Biden and trashed him for weeks.
Article on front of @nytimes this morning praises Republicans for “message discipline” in attacking Biden’s policy around inflation & Afghanistan, but offering no counter policies themselves. Good journalists would hold them accountable for policy. nytimes.com/2022/01/28/us/…
Most popular alternative to any current policy is “awesome policy to be named later”, so trashing Democratic policy w/o naming new policy is great strategy, but only works if mainstream media accepts “assume policy to be named later” rather than hounding Republicans for policy.
Republicans used this strategy w/ ObamaCare headlining *4* election cycles w/ “repeal & replace”, mainstream media inviting people to imagine “replace” would be “awesome policy to be named later” when it was actually *nothing*, this actual policy was *super dangerous & unpopular*