It’s official. Putin has again lavished praise on “brilliant and talented” Trump, his fellow conspirator and fellow anti-democrat. At an Eastern Economic Forum meeting in Vladivostok, Putin claimed that Trump, with a mere 91 felony counts outstanding, was being “persecuted.” He also extolled the virtues of “talented” Elon Musk, who earlier put forward a peace proposal that echoed Putin’s own and interfered with Ukraine’s ability to attack Russia. (See my Substack Newsletter on Monday.) Then Putin put his metaphorical arm around another great democrat, North Korea’s boy dictator Kim Jong-un. What an assemblage!
“It’s good to see…Putin has made his endorsement official,” remarked former New Jersey governor Chris Christie, once a booster of Trump. “He’s endorsed another autocrat,” continued Christie.
In 2017 and 2018, Trump expressed himself strongly in favor of Putin. In 2018 in Helsinki, after a mutual tête-à-tête, he said that he trusted Putin more than American intelligence services. Even in early 2021, the defeated former president opined that Putin’s word was more reliable than American intelligence briefings and the work of “lowlifes” in the FBI.
Just as China’s Xi Jinping promised Putin full support for all of his nefarious underminings of democracy and his unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, so Putin yesterday solidified his complete solidarity with Trump. Coupling his effusive support for Trump with acclaim for Kim, Putin in Vladivostok said the charging of his buddy Trump demonstrated the “rottenness” of the American political system. (Putin nevertheless denied that he and Trump had “special” ties.) The United States “cannot pretend,” Putin continued, “to teach democracy to others.” Putin went on to rail against American imperialism, evidenced by its defense of Ukraine. This is all Alice in Wonderland talk. Maybe pernicious Putin is the Mad Hatter, reincarnated. (“If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn't. And contrary wise, what is, it wouldn't be. And what it wouldn't be, it would.)
In less polarized, more decent, times, Putin’s embrace of Trump would be the political kiss of death. It would immediately disqualify his candidacy for the American presidency and send the Republican Party into paroxysms of rejection. But not so in 2023, despite the felony counts across four jurisdictions, despite the so far circumstantial evidence of his crookedness, despite the vituperative critiques of some of his former backers (Vice-President Mike Pence, among others), and despite the generous manner in which Trump hauls in huge numbers of dollars on the backs of his multiple indictments.
Speaker Kevin McCarthy has not commented on the Trump-Putin alignment. Senator Lindsay Graham tut-tutted, but without breaking with Trump. And hardcore Trump voters seem unshaken by all of the corrupt sleaze, unseemly conduct, brazen lying, and offensive braggadocio that Trump is and promotes. That Putin likes it, and that Trump likes Putin (and other cruel despots like Kim Jong-un) should at least produce a tremor in the white supremacist provinces. But no!
We have fallen far from the heady days when Republicans were led by starchy, but straightforward, Republicans like midwestern Senators Robert Taft and Arthur Vandenberg. Sen. Milt Romney’s decision to retire only further testifies to the bankruptcy of today’s Republican Party as the repository of American Constitutional values, fundamental morality, and commonsense. Instead, the Matt Gaetzes and Majorie Taylor Greenes are throwbacks to Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s day.
In 2023, has the American political system plummeted to its nadir? Kevin McCarthy seems to have fallen cravenly farther than even cynics expected, being pushed by the most uncompromising and bigoted members of his caucus in the House of Representatives to seek an impeachment of President Biden (despite the absence of any kind of evidence of high crimes and misdemeanors after searching thousands of bank records and unearthing endless dirt about Hunter Biden). McCarthy’s personal troubles with the likes of Rep. Gaetz may even bring the U. S. government – in war time!! – to a standstill when everyone of any sense in both parties knows that passing expenditure bills is necessary. Even Sen. Mitch McConnell is on board. Taft rolls in his grave.
These are not normal times. Nor are we alone. Crypto-Nazism is alive and well in political life in Austria, France, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Serbia, Slovakia (the latest), Spain, and even Sweden. Algeria, Egypt, and Tunisia are other places where despots are fully in control. The ten or so recent coups d’état in Africa hardly speak to the triumph of democracy. Nor does the dreadful war between competing generals and their forces in Sudan. Cambodia’s ruling family has passed the leadership baton to the son of Hun Sen, its longtime dictator. And China, America’s only long-standing competitor, seems to be strangling itself, and any kind of individual initiative, choice, and voice because of Xi Jinping’s fear of internal opposition.
For all of these global reasons, and in order to save what is left of the democratic order, the United States must hold its head high, banish anything that reminds us of the “Know Nothings” of the 1850s and the Huey Long and Charles Lindbergh era of the 1930s, and triumph over Putin’s self-induced disorder in Ukraine and beyond. This is a moment to speak truth to power and to double down in burnishing the flame of integrity. It is imperative to demonstrate that no matter how thoroughly dishonest kleptocrats like Trump manage to excite followers with untruths, that the rest of us will resist in order to make these United States and the world a better place. Democracy is in peril. It is up to us to save it from Putin and Trump, and the others.
Subscribers, Readers, Friends: This is my 200th Newsletter. Please let me know what you would like more of, or less of. I will try to respond appropriately. I want as much contact as possible with my growing readership. And some of you are becoming paid subscribers, for which many thanks.
To your question, "In 2023, has the American political system plummeted to its nadir?", I certainly hope so. However, the future appears less bright every day. Unless the maga crowd go back underground or wake up, or simply don't vote because they think they'll be cheated, the nadir is yet to be reached.
Thank you for your substack. I feel I'm learning some of the history (along with your analysis) that was either missing or glossed over in my education.