David Jay Morris for BuzzFlash: “MAGAstan” is Replete with Useful Idiots. How will Putin Exploit Them?
MAGAstan and Putin, Best Friends Forever (Harald Groven)
February 26, 2022
By David Jay Morris
Want evidence of just how profoundly unamerican Trump and his acolytes really are?
Look no further than their recent comments on Vladimir Putin’s aggression against Ukraine.
As he drooled over the strength of the armored force the Russian dictator assembled for the attack, dear leader Donald calls him a “genius” and his actions “wonderful.”
Autocrat cheerleader Tucker Carlson poo-pooed the coming storm, calling it a “border conflict” and saying, “‘Has Putin ever called me a racist? Has he threatened to get me fired for disagreeing with him?’”
B-list conservative commentator Candace Owens echoed Putin talking points in a tweet that read, “I suggest every American who wants to know what’s *actually* going on in Russia and Ukraine, read this transcript of Putin’s address. As I’ve said for month — NATO (under direction from the United States) is violating previous agreements and expanding eastward. WE are at fault.”
Even former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, perhaps with an eye on Trump base voters, jumped on the bandwagon, calling Putin “savvy” and “very talented” and saying, “I have enormous respect for him.”
Not exactly Ronald Reagan’s, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”
Having seen the extraordinary damage done to the United States, the international rule of law and democracy itself by Donald Trump’s time in office, is it any surprise that Putin feels so emboldened?
Having seen Trump’s attempt at a coup d’état following his election defeat in 2020, culminating in the January 6th attack on the Capitol and the complete lack of consequences he has so far suffered, is it any wonder Putin regards Biden as a pushover?
Had Biden followed the Putin playbook, the day after his inauguration, all of the Trump family’s assets would have been seized, he and all his major supporters would have disappeared into the Gulag and Mr. Carlson and his ilk would have suffered some unfortunate accidents involving upper floor balconies.
That’s how Vladimir rolls.
Wrapped up, as he seems to be, in a tsarist fever dream of a reborn greater Russia, he has no understanding at all of democracy and the strength that can come from acting in accordance with the will of the people.
In his mind, we are weak.
And he may well be going for the kill shot - the collapse of the international order, democracy and rule of law.
All to be replaced by spheres of influence under the thumb of autocratic, kleptocratic, jingoistic strongmen.
For this to work, however, America as we know it must die.
Congresses and presidents chosen by free and fair elections open to all must be replaced by rubberstamping sycophants genuflecting to a second-rate wannabe dictator – ideally a buffoonish and easily manipulated one like Trump.
So – as Putin’s tanks roll across Ukraine and his troops round up or kill people on his enemies list – what actions is he likely to take in the USA?
What can he do to take us out of the game?
Sadly, with Trump already issuing hardly veiled at all threats of massive violence if anyone takes legal action against him; with the machinery of free and fair elections being undermined at every turn; with truck blockades and other forms of astroturfed, right-wing civil unrest growing, it might not take all that much.
A covert social media campaign here, an agent provocateur there, some well-disguised cyberwarfare and a propaganda two-step with the Maga crowd leading to Republican House and Senate wins in November and we’re pretty well done.
Can this dreary scenario be stopped?
Definitely.
But it will take the growth of some backbone in whatever is left of non-Trump Republicans…and we see little sign of such a thing.
It will take the Justice Department waking up and realizing that stately, by-the-book investigations do not begin to match the danger and urgency of the moment we are in.
But we see little sign of that either.
If there might be one potential silver lining in this darkest of clouds now looming over the Ukraine – and the U.S., however, it is this. As the rhetoric and actions of our country’s enemies foreign and domestic continue to align and intensify, will we at last be able to legally charge Trump and his “MAGAstan” Fifth Column for what they really are?
Traitors.
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