In yet one more
bizarre pronouncement, a letter in Thursday's local paper proclaims that Vladimir Putin would "prefer Hillary to Trump as
President." Apparently this writer
has an insight into the mind of the Russian
President greater than essentially every
other single actual foreign policy expert in both parties and around the free
world! A Russian professor at the University of Michigan, Ekaterina
Mishina, has another, more informed point of view: "Trump “is saying things which sound very
appealing to the Russian president.” Mishina declared, “I’m absolutely positive
that Putin wants Donald Trump to be the
President of The United States.”
Consider Trump's
7/27/2016 statement that he thinks the US should "consider acknowledging Russian
sovereignty in Ukraine" - a move opposed by virtually every member of
Congress. Apparently lacking any true grasp of NATO's importance, he has also demanded that other NATO members compensate
the US, making many of our eastern European allies, nervous about his
(our) commitment to defend them. Trump's disparagement of our allies in Asia, also creates new opportunities for Russian influence. Trump’s
promises to disrupt our trade agreements also fuel Putin’s agenda. How better
(for Putin) to start the New Year than with
a trade war between the United States and China or Mexico? Trump’s threats to
stop paying our debts also would radically undermine our credibility as a
lender, another desirable outcome for Putin.
As a general
position, Mr. Trump advocates
isolationism and virtual abandonment U.S. leadership in the world. A U.S. retreat from leadership in global matters
fits precisely with Putin’s international interests. Implementation of Trump's Draconian ideas regarding immigration or walling off our
southern border would certainly stimulate major push-back from both Congress and in the country as a whole. A US
convulsed by infighting over Trump’s deeply divisive policy proposals also
cedes Putin more freedom to act around the world. This from a man who doesn't
know that China and Brazil have 60% of the rare earths so critical to modern
technology while the US has less than 1.5%! I think old buddy, Vlad, is fine
with Donald!
Trump's campaign slogan re: "making America
great again" resonates with many of the boomers and Cold War generations,
who apparently have short memories. What "made America Great" in
their younger years was precisely the sort of thing Trump deplores. We (the UA)
were world leaders because we demonstrated commitment to freedom and global
community with such efforts as the Marshall Plan, NATO and SEATO. Much of this
was also, of course, stimulated by our aversion to Communism, and we made
mistakes because of it. While Putin is no Communist, that difference is largely
invisible when considering Russia's recent foreign adventures.
A dictator is a dictator, and Putin is one.
Media sources and political opponents sometimes mysteriously die. He has pronounced the collapse of the
Soviet Union to be "the greatest geopolitical disaster of the last century"
- a relatively harsh assessment considering that the time span delineated includes
both World Wars, Korea, and Vietnam. To
fail to understand that Putin, unfettered, would love to re-create the Union
under another name is naive. So who
gives every indication of preferring a relatively isolationist foreign policy? It certainly isn't Mrs. Clinton.
Finally, and
perhaps saddest of all, is the fact that many of Trump's supporters are simply
not sufficiently educated in the recent history of the planet to understand that
it is impossible to be an isolationist state in the modern world. Likewise,
most of them, and, to be fair, a lot of
Progressives as well, have no idea and no grasp of the implication of how much the US access to domestically owned raw
materials has changed since the end of WWII and the glory years of American industrial
production. It's as if they permanently reside in the 1950s, hang around Al's
Drive in with Richie, Potsie, Ralph, and the Fonz, insensitive to the changing
world we live in.
As John
Steinbeck once wrote, "You can't go home again, because home has
ceased to exist, except in the mothballs of memory." This is essential to understanding global Economic/Political/Industrial
realities. Mr. Trump should, considering
that he manufactures everything he sells offshore, with the unfortunate exception
of his trademarked Trump wines, which, Virginia grown and vinted, are now
selling at up to 70% below the original retail
price because ....what's the word I'm seeking here..... oh yeah - they suck! Like
many of Trump's exploits, he believes if he marks it with his imprimatur that
it must succeed. Defaulted casinos, hotels and his atrocious wine are proof
that he is delusional. Let's not subject our nation to his narcissistic
delusions.
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