Trashing American Allies Turns Out to Be Bad for National Security
theatlantic.com
theatlantic.com
it may snub America's power to attack on foreign soil but that is independent of actual security concerns
Even after he's gone, he's poisoned the GOP, quickly distilling them down to MAGA sycophants; barely a backbone between them. Real conservative politics has been deselected, slaughtered to make room for this faux-Christian xenophobic TradChad tribalism.
He's harming traditional Democrat policy too. Left-leaning people are easily pulled to the extreme when they see people being attacked in the streets and unnecessary wars in their name.
The rest of the world is tired. We don't understand why we're paying more for everything because this delinquent US government has started yet another fuel war. We just want stability and Trump isn't it.
Trump has been heavily involved with Russian money ever since US banks refused to loan him more money for his repeated bankruptcies. At that time, Putin was head of the KGB, iirc (could fact check this I’m not 100 percent sure). Also very sus ties through marriage. I’m not sure he is -happily- compliant, but from whatever combination of stick and carrot that may exist, there is little doubt in my mind that the administration is carrying so much water for Russia that europa would blush.
If you want to see the whole story in embarrassingly human terms all you have to do is watch the physical interaction between Trump and Putin when they are in close proximity. The monkey doesn’t lie.
If you pay attention, almost everything the admin does benefits Russia in some way. Eroding soft power. Undermining nato. Crippling us debt. Hamstringing innovation through reckless trade shenanigans. Undermining trust. Abandonment of Ukraine, an erstwhile critical ally. Hand wavey condemnation of Russia but with no teeth whatsoever. Collapsing the straits of Hormuz. The list goes on and on.
Putin didn't elect him. Our neighbors did -- almost 80 million of them, and tens of millions more who decided that either choice was fine with them.
The ones who voted for him are not calling for him to be turned out of office. The elected representatives are supporting this action, and their constituents aren't turning on them, either.
He's doing what Putin wants, but he couldn't do it if it weren't also what tens of millions of Americans want. There are many ways they could do something about it, and they aren't. The overwhelming majority of them will vote to continue it come November.
Putin is not the problem. My neighbors are.
This is a bad road to go down.
If you start blaming people rather than processes, the obvious fix is to disenfranchise the people (or worse). If you blame the process and then change it to get a better outcome, everyone wins.
There is a lot of low-hanging bad fruit in how the USA runs it's democracy. You allow gerrymandering, you allow politicians to make it difficult for people to vote. The small voter turnout means the fringe single issue voters get a disproportionate say. You use first past the post, which means candidate the majority think is the "least worst" may not get elected. (No voting system is perfect, but FPP is by far the worst.) Your political donation laws favour corporates, who by definition have no interest in voter welfare.
Also, why do you think the dem ticket was so underwhelming? The USA thinks it’s a two party system, but it’s not. It’s really a one party system. The money party.
If you want your democracy back, get rid of citizens united, make journalism independent of industry, and create some decent framework around campaign finance.
you do realize that this is precisely the agenda that is being pushed on both sides through millions of advertising dollars every month?
If you’re too busy looking sideways to find the blame you never look up. You are living in an intentional society. It’s not nearly as as-hoc as it seems . You don’t have to push water if you can just tilt the land. The circumstances that exist for you , and your neighbours, are precisely the circumstances that were engineered for them to fill. Now, they chose to fill that role, but they didn’t make the role. Look up.
Radical populists have a habit of cuckooing all the moderates out of the party nest. I'm not sure the GOP made Trump, but they sure as hell let him in.
Sometimes you piss people (countries) off by necessity because there are overriding objectives but Trump does it for ego etc.
It’s such a childish own goal
That does not sound like someone who has this under control, which makes me wonder if his conclusion is valid. Does he really know the allies well enough to say how they will react?