The Democrats and Russia
Jun 12, 2018 16:10:19 #
Elaine2025
Loc: Seattle, Wa
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/07/24/why-its-hard-to-take-democrats-seriously-on-russia-215415
Excerpts from this lengthy article.
But as much as Democrats may be correct in their diagnosis of Republican debasement, they are wholly lacking in self-awareness as to their own record regarding Russia. This helps explain why conservatives have so much trouble taking liberal outrage about Russia seriously: Most of the people lecturing them for being “Putin’s pawns” spent the better part of the past eight years blindly supporting a Democratic president, Barack Obama, whose default mode with Moscow was fecklessness. To Republicans, these latter-day Democratic Cold Warriors sound like partisan hysterics, a perception that’s not entirely wrong.
Three years later, in the midst of what he thought was a private conversation about arms control with then-Russian President Dmitri Medvedev, Obama was famously caught on an open microphone promising that he would have “more flexibility” (that is, be able to make even more concessions to Moscow) after the p**********l e******n that fall. (Imagine the uproar if Trump had a similar hot mic moment with Putin.) Later that year, after Mitt Romney suggested Russia was America’s “No. 1 geopolitical foe,” Obama ridiculed his Republican challenger. “The 1980s are now calling and they want their foreign policy back,” Obama retorted, in a line that has come back to haunt Democrats. An entire procession of Democratic politicians, foreign policy hands and sympathetic journalists followed Obama’s lead and repeated the critique. According to soon-to-be secretary of state John Kerry, Romney’s warning about Russia was a “preposterous notion.” His predecessor Madeleine Albright said Romney possessed “little understanding of what is actually going on in the 21stcentury.”
Yet rarely in the course of accusing Trump of being a Kremlin agent have liberals—least of all the president they so admire—reflected upon their hypocrisy and apologized to Romney, whose prescience about Russia, had he been elected in 2012, may very well have dissuaded Putin from doing what he did on Obama’s watch. In Obama, Putin rightly saw a weak and indecisive leader and wagered that applying the sort of tactics Russia uses in its post-imperial backyard to America’s democratic process would be worth the effort. The most we’ve seen in the way of atonement are Clinton’s former campaign spokesman Brian Fallon admitting on Twitter, “We Dems erred in ’12 by mocking” Romney, and Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau sheepishly conceding, with a chuckle, “we were a little off.” If Obama feels any regret, maybe he’s saving it for the memoir.
Hypocrisy is no stranger to politics, of course, and it’s never too late for people to come around to the realization that Russia poses a danger. But with Democrats seriously talking about impeachment or even treason, a reckoning is in order. Constantly harping on Trump’s strange affinity for Putin and suspicious connections to Russia isn’t sufficient; the far more substantive policy concessions made to Russia by the previous administration did at least as much damage to American interests, if not more. Are liberals willing to admit the reset was a giant miscalculation from the start? Are they willing to support sending arms to Ukraine? To redeploy missile defense systems to allies in Eastern Europe? Are they willing to concede that Obama’s Syria policy was an epic disaster that paved the way for Russia’s reemergence as a Middle Eastern military power? Are they, in other words, willing to renounce the foreign policy legacy of one of their most popular leaders? Because only that will demonstrate they’re serious about confronting Russia. Anything short reeks of partisanship.
Excerpts from this lengthy article.
But as much as Democrats may be correct in their diagnosis of Republican debasement, they are wholly lacking in self-awareness as to their own record regarding Russia. This helps explain why conservatives have so much trouble taking liberal outrage about Russia seriously: Most of the people lecturing them for being “Putin’s pawns” spent the better part of the past eight years blindly supporting a Democratic president, Barack Obama, whose default mode with Moscow was fecklessness. To Republicans, these latter-day Democratic Cold Warriors sound like partisan hysterics, a perception that’s not entirely wrong.
Three years later, in the midst of what he thought was a private conversation about arms control with then-Russian President Dmitri Medvedev, Obama was famously caught on an open microphone promising that he would have “more flexibility” (that is, be able to make even more concessions to Moscow) after the p**********l e******n that fall. (Imagine the uproar if Trump had a similar hot mic moment with Putin.) Later that year, after Mitt Romney suggested Russia was America’s “No. 1 geopolitical foe,” Obama ridiculed his Republican challenger. “The 1980s are now calling and they want their foreign policy back,” Obama retorted, in a line that has come back to haunt Democrats. An entire procession of Democratic politicians, foreign policy hands and sympathetic journalists followed Obama’s lead and repeated the critique. According to soon-to-be secretary of state John Kerry, Romney’s warning about Russia was a “preposterous notion.” His predecessor Madeleine Albright said Romney possessed “little understanding of what is actually going on in the 21stcentury.”
Yet rarely in the course of accusing Trump of being a Kremlin agent have liberals—least of all the president they so admire—reflected upon their hypocrisy and apologized to Romney, whose prescience about Russia, had he been elected in 2012, may very well have dissuaded Putin from doing what he did on Obama’s watch. In Obama, Putin rightly saw a weak and indecisive leader and wagered that applying the sort of tactics Russia uses in its post-imperial backyard to America’s democratic process would be worth the effort. The most we’ve seen in the way of atonement are Clinton’s former campaign spokesman Brian Fallon admitting on Twitter, “We Dems erred in ’12 by mocking” Romney, and Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau sheepishly conceding, with a chuckle, “we were a little off.” If Obama feels any regret, maybe he’s saving it for the memoir.
Hypocrisy is no stranger to politics, of course, and it’s never too late for people to come around to the realization that Russia poses a danger. But with Democrats seriously talking about impeachment or even treason, a reckoning is in order. Constantly harping on Trump’s strange affinity for Putin and suspicious connections to Russia isn’t sufficient; the far more substantive policy concessions made to Russia by the previous administration did at least as much damage to American interests, if not more. Are liberals willing to admit the reset was a giant miscalculation from the start? Are they willing to support sending arms to Ukraine? To redeploy missile defense systems to allies in Eastern Europe? Are they willing to concede that Obama’s Syria policy was an epic disaster that paved the way for Russia’s reemergence as a Middle Eastern military power? Are they, in other words, willing to renounce the foreign policy legacy of one of their most popular leaders? Because only that will demonstrate they’re serious about confronting Russia. Anything short reeks of partisanship.
Jun 13, 2018 09:16:13 #
Yes, It's so refreshing to have a Russian elected President in the White House.
Jun 13, 2018 09:37:02 #
Elaine2025
Loc: Seattle, Wa
Frank T wrote:
Yes, It's so refreshing to have a Russian elected President in the White House.
There go those delusions again Frank. I don't think you will survive 6.5 more years of Trump with all of that h**e inside you. You read about obummer and you deny. Good liberal logic.
Jun 13, 2018 10:17:01 #
Elaine2025 wrote:
There go those delusions again Frank. I don't think you will survive 6.5 more years of Trump with all of that h**e inside you. You read about obummer and you deny. Good liberal logic.
Twenty-three indictments and five convictions so far don't seem like a delusion to me.
Jun 13, 2018 11:15:51 #
Elaine2025
Loc: Seattle, Wa
Frank T wrote:
Twenty-three indictments and five convictions so far don't seem like a delusion to me.
Frank are you mentally challenged? What does your post have to do with the TOPIC. Not a damn thing. Concentrate.
Jun 13, 2018 11:27:11 #
Elaine2025 wrote:
Frank are you mentally challenged? What does your post have to do with the TOPIC. Not a damn thing. Concentrate.
Okay Elaine, I'll type this slowly so you can follow me. You stated that I had delusions, I responded to that statement.
That's how it works.
Jun 13, 2018 11:28:47 #
Elaine2025 wrote:
Frank are you mentally challenged? What does your post have to do with the TOPIC. Not a damn thing. Concentrate.
Okay Elaine. I'll type this slowly so you can understand. You stated that I had delusions. That was the statement I was responding to.
That's how this thing works.
Jun 13, 2018 11:32:46 #
Frank T wrote:
Yes, It's so refreshing to have a Russian elected President in the White House.
The nations democrats selected Bernie as their leader. If not for Clinton and her machine rigging the primaries for her, democrats would have selected a damned c****e. But hey, go off the rails about Russia or some other such nonsense.
What did Trump run on? Capitalism baby!
What did HRC and the Bern run on? FREEBIES!!!!!!!
Jun 13, 2018 11:34:22 #
Elaine2025
Loc: Seattle, Wa
Frank T wrote:
Okay Elaine. I'll type this slowly so you can understand. You stated that I had delusions. That was the statement I was responding to.
That's how this thing works.
That's how this thing works.
You only need to hit the button once.
Jun 13, 2018 11:36:15 #
Elaine2025
Loc: Seattle, Wa
Frank T wrote:
Okay Elaine. I'll type this slowly so you can understand. You stated that I had delusions. That was the statement I was responding to.
That's how this thing works.
That's how this thing works.
Well, isn't that a cute way to sidestep the topic. I'm sure no one noticed.
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