In a post yesterday, I did some walking down Memory Lane — as far back as 1987. Today, I would like to go back to 1984. Because Donald Trump, for one, has reminded me of the speech that Jeane Kirkpatrick gave at the Republican National Convention that year.
Last Saturday, Trump gave an interview to Real America’s Voice. (The phrase “Real America,” by itself, is a very interesting one.) The former president was discussing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. And he blamed the leaders of the United States for that invasion. “They actually taunted him, if you really look at it,” said Trump. “Our country, and our so-called leadership, taunted Putin. And, I would listen — I’d say, ‘You know, they’re almost forcing him to go in, with what they’re saying.’”
Reflect on that for a second: “They’re almost forcing him to go in.” At least Trump said “almost.” Incidentally, Trump provided no example of the American provocations that supposedly led Vladimir Putin to launch his full-out assault on Ukraine.
As many of us see it, Putin and his forces have assaulted Ukraine because they want to efface Ukraine as an independent entity. They want to re-subjugate Ukraine, forcing it back into an empire. Also, Putin is scared to death of a democratic example on his border. What will Russians think? They might get the idea that they, too, can live in a free country. Putin is in a general war with the free and democratic West. And, of course, he wants to distract Russians from the real problems they have.
Ask yourself: Has Putin’s war — has his assault on Ukraine — bettered the life of a single Russian? Is the betterment of Russian lives a concern of Russian leadership? It is a concern of Vladimir Kara-Murza and other Russian patriots. But they, of course, are in prison (when they’re not dead).
Anyway, Donald Trump reminded me of Jeane Kirkpatrick, as he has in the past. In her famous 1984 speech, she said that left-wing Democrats had a tendency to “blame America first” — to blame America, before anyone or anything else, for the various problems and conflicts around the world.
Trump has this habit, along with others on the right (and left, naturally). On the day of his June 2018 summit with Putin, Trump wrote, “Our relationship with Russia has NEVER been worse thanks to many years of U.S. foolishness and stupidity and now, the Rigged Witch Hunt!” The Russian foreign ministry answered, “We agree.”
In the old days, Republicans and conservatives would have exploded over this. But the old days are . . . old.
Last Saturday, Michael Flynn, too, gave an interview — his to The Mel K Show (also designed for “Real America,” presumably). Flynn was Trump’s first national-security adviser. On the show, he characterized Putin and Dmitry Medvedev as “bold leaders who have everything at stake in terms of protecting their country.” He characterized the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, as “a foolish person” and “a dangerous fool.”
In 2015, Flynn was seated next to Putin at a gala dinner celebrating the tenth anniversary of RT (Russia Today), the Kremlin propaganda network. Flynn was paid $45,000. If you raised a concern over this, as Flynn rose to further prominence, you were told by GOP loyalists, “Don’t get your panties in a twist, Sally, the Cold War’s over.”
It is — but you know the old line about history, repetition, and rhyming.
Some people are simply on the other side. I do not say that General Flynn is one of them. But some people, plain and simple, are on the other side. That was a realization that many of us had to come to during the Cold War. It was not necessarily a matter of a different point of view, within the same side. It was not simply that a nice left-wing poli-sci prof at Wisconsin had criticisms of Kennedy, Brzezinski, or Weinberger. In a democracy, there ought to be robust, even flaming, debate. But some were flatly on the other side (and the more honest of them were unblushing about it). The same is true today. As Jonah Goldberg pointed out recently, Putin is to many on the right as Fidel Castro was to many on the left.
Useful idiots, fellow travelers, apologists, mouthpieces — they never go away, although they may come at you from different quarters. The lessons I learned from National Review, Commentary, and other invaluable publications stick. Times change but life doesn’t, so to speak.