Betrayal

 

From my never-ending reach for common ground comes a fact so incontrovertible that we'll all agree: under Trump, America has sided with Russia and others of our adversaries. Supporting facts: The Oval Office encounter with Volodymir Zelensky, in which both Trump and Vance attacked him aggressively and angrily. (That the ambush was pre-planned seems obvious; admittedly, that invites disagreement.) Also: the UN resolution that Russia was the aggressor when it invaded Ukraine. In voting "no," America joined Russia, China, Hungary, and fifteen other retro nations. Despite US opposition, the resolution passed overwhelmingly. Such is the respect for the US that Trump has engendered.

Those events occurred; on that much we agree. We can also agree, because it's true, that Russia was delighted with the Trump/Vance vituperation of the man leading a country bravely defending itself, under relentless, deadly siege. Reflecting the exhausting disconnect that now characterizes American politics, some see those events as disturbing, depressing, embarrassing, and indicative of the end of America standing for good in the world; for democracy, for morality, for generosity. They recall that, in getting Ukraine to relinquish its prodigious arsenal of nuclear weapons several years ago, America agreed to protect it thenceforth. They dislike seeing their country renege on such a critical commitment.

Others see it as peachy.

What happened is on record. The question is, is it good or bad? Putin is a ruthless dictator. He imprisons his political enemies, except when he has them killed. His unprovoked invasion of Ukraine is cruel and immoral, bombing shopping malls and hospitals, deliberately. Children's hospitals. Kidnapping thousands of Ukrainian children, removed to Russia for who-knows-what purpose? Either you revile Putin for those horrors or, like Trump, you admire him. Either you see him as a continuing threat to cyber security and election meddling, for another example, or, like Trump, you're fine with turning him loose.

Your choice: It's a free country. For how long it remains so depends, at least in part, on whether a voting majority of Americans finds siding with Russia good for our country and morally superior to helping Ukraine in its fight to maintain democracy and independence.

In response to a statement that we're witnessing the collapse of the American ideal, Garry Kasparov, Russian world chess champion and courageous critic of Russia, replied (paraphrasing), "We're not seeing the collapse of the American ideal; we're seeing its betrayal." It's a significant, if subtle, difference.

"Collapse" suggests it was inevitable; that our democratic republic was impermanent from its founding. "Betrayal" accurately implies it's been forsaken; in this case, by a man who never understood or valued American ideals. Though it depends on reasonably well-informed voters, democracy isn't intrinsically flawed. With its election lies and so much more, Trumpism is making it so. As rapidly as it's happening, it ought to be reversible, which is why Trump and his destructors are trying so hard to prevent its resurrection. By lies, dishonest media, vote suppression, and a weaponized DOJ. Plus a blatantly dishonest SOTU speech. During which, it must be said, the Democrats' response was stupid.

Trump sees the world not in terms of right and wrong, but whether transactions enrich himself: material; land; aggregation of wealth. Hotels in Gaza. Kingly tributes. Bitcoin. "You hold no cards," Trump bloated to President Zelensky. There's no clearer confirmation of who Trump is. For him, "cards" are tangible items of value. Such ephemera as being right, heroically defending against a brutal aggressor, undergoing horrendous sacrifices to save their country? To Trump, not playable cards.

Until a few weeks ago, the American ideal had meaning; was, at least in part, central to our international presence. It was reasonable to believe it had staying power. Instead, Republican leaders of all pronouns are praising Trump's and Vance's crude attack as courageous, great for America. Manly. They disparage President Zelensky as ungrateful, greedy, incompetent; lie that he's never thanked America, which he has, many times. But, unlike the adulators with whom Trump surrounds himself, the Ukrainian president refused to grovel.

Mirroring the counterfactual Trumpian claim that Ukraine started the war, Marco Rubio intoned, as his soul departed his body centripetally, that President Zelensky owed an apology for "antagonizing" Trump. Are there no MAGAs who find that outrageous, who recognize in that reality-reversing statement the disdain with which Trump and his osculators see their voters? "America First" is their second-biggest deception: For Trump, it means "Trump first, America last."

Here's another proposal on which we should agree. Let's judge Trump's and Musk's and their cabinet members' actions thus: Are they helping average Americans? Have they fortified America's standing and influence in the world? Conversely, to what extent are they benefitting Trump, Musk, polluters, and/or Putin but not the rest of us?

My answers: in no way; the opposite; a whole lot. Convincing arguments to the contrary welcomed. This might help. Or this. And this.