The leader of the Republican Party reminds America again that he is not on our side, that he supports a brutal dictator who has launched a barbarous attack against an innocent European neighbor, a democracy of 45 million people.
There is no "yes, but" on this, no way to rationalize it. He has taken the side of evil, been called out for it, and has maintained his pro-Putin, anti-American, anti-NATO alliance, anti-democracy stance. He doesn't offer a "different point of view."
He is actively working to destroy everything that America has stood for in the world for the past 80 years...even as, via his January 6th coup attempt and on-going assault on our democracy...he also seeks destroy the system of government we have had for two and a half centuries.
At the same time, with his defense of Joe Rogan and MTG tonight, he has reminded us that he seeks to preserve the worst of our racist past. Every GOP defense of him is a defense of all that, testimony the intellectual and moral bankruptcy of the party and the danger it now poses.
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People ask what Joe Biden must do in the State of the Union. The answer is simple: Tell the truth. Tell the truth about the record number of jobs created. Tell the truth about the record economic growth. Tell the truth about finally turning the corner on the pandemic.
Tell the truth about restoring America's leadership. Tell the truth about the children lifted out of poverty and the neighbors in need who were helped by the $1.9T American rescue package. Tell the truth about the jobs and growth that will come from the $1.2T infrastructure bill.
Tell the truth about having more judges nominated and confirmed to top positions than any American president. Tell the truth about those judges and the administration leadership having more diversity, more gender balance and more quality than any in history.
The fear of taking action that might escalate this war so that it spills beyond the borders of Ukraine or creates a nuclear crisis is real, understandable and even a sign of sanity.
The fear of what happens to Ukraine and also to the international order if we do not more actively defend them is also real, understandable and our answer will help define the measure of our morality.
Putin's calculus was wrong on many levels--depending on Western disunity, American weakness, and Ukrainian passivity in the face of invasion. On each front he has grossly misunderstood the situation and his plans have been confounded.
I was reading up on Ukrainian history the other day. It's an extraordinary story that connects with every part of the world, to many of the world's peoples and religions. Ukraine, as much as Istanbul, is surely the crossroads of the world.
Its story is one not just of Slavs but of Vikings, Mongols, Khazars, Turks, Christians, Muslims & Jews. It is full of innovation, from the pre-historic domestication of horses to the flourishing of Kievan Rus. It has seen the horrific from brutal wars to the Holodomor.
Like any nation, it has seen evil and intolerance and also redemption and great creativity, been divided by tribalism and seized by empires. It also seemed quite remote to me until this week's events. But as I read, I realized that was a mistake.
One reason this war for Ukraine resonates so clearly is that it is the rare conflict that is largely without ambiguity. Russia provoked an innocent neighbor without provocation. Their reasons had to do with the virtues of that neighbor country--notably its embrace of democracy.
The Russian invaders are brutal and violating international law. The Russian leader is a dangerous, kleptocratic war criminal without a single redeeming virtue. The people of Ukraine are fighting heroically against great odds to defend themselves.
The protestors against the war in Russia are heroically standing up to the despotic, corrupt regime that has stolen so much from the since Putin took power. The Western powers are acting in defense of peace and international law.
While there's much to be careful of in sorting through Twitter (or Tik Tok or Facebook or other) feeds on the Ukraine war, there's no doubt that the availability of social media and so many witnesses with access to the Net and global audiences is transformative.
If you know who to follow and understand what you're seeing, the place to keep track of this conflict is no longer cable news. (Which is now more a source of analysis than breaking news as it was, for example, during the Gulf Wars.).
It is also the place where effective memes/viral stories can have important political consequences. The Sunflower Lady and the story of Snake Island are two powerful examples. So too is just the image of Zelenskyy staying in Kiev, defeating disinformation w/a Tweet.
Common MAGA argument is “Putin didn’t invade Ukraine under Trump. Which means he saw Trump as strong.” Nonsense. Under Trump he didn’t have to invade. Trump was doing more to remove the NATO threat than an invasion could.
Trump sought to draw down the US troop presence in NATO by a lot. Trump had plans to pull out of NATO altogether in term two. Trump regularly attacked NATO allies and sowed dissension.
(See the relations between Trump’s ambassador to Germany and the Germans.) And recall Trump was actually impeached for withholding vital aid from Ukraine.