Photo: Wikimedia Commons - www.kremlin.ru
Putin at Crimea rally in 2022
Vladimir Putin at Crimean reunification rally in 2022.
Seriously, is there anyone in America other than Donald Trump and Tucker Carlson who doesn’t agree with President Biden that Russian President Vladimir Putin should not remain in power?
Only in partisan politics, would the president of the United States be accused of committing “a gaffe” for saying right out loud, “For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power!” as the entire world watches Putin leveling cities slaughtering men, women and children in the neighboring democracy of Ukraine.
The worst part is the days of media bed-wetting last week over whether it was polite for Biden to speak the truth on behalf of every decent human being in the U.S. and around the world overshadowed a far more important political story about Putin’s continuing efforts to destroy American democracy from within.
Russia announced on state television last week it was now openly supporting the installation of “our partner Trump” as president of the United States just as it did covertly through massive propaganda campaigns on social media in 2016 and 2020. Evgeny Popov, the host of Putin’s version of 60 Minutes, declared “It’s time for us, our people, to call on the people of the United States to change the regime in the U.S. early and to again help our partner Trump to become president.”
Abolish Democracy?
Get that? Republicans don’t have to wait around until 2024 when to the party’s shame Trump remains its leading candidate for the presidential nomination again despite being defeated after a single disastrous term by the largest vote in U.S. history. Elections are for namby-pamby world democracies. Republicans should simply abolish democracy as a violent mob of them tried to do on Jan. 6, 2021. Russia would be thrilled to welcome back its partner Trump.
How is that not the biggest story in American politics and why has there been so little media reporting about it? That might explain why widespread support for President Biden’s leadership of world democracies aiding Ukraine, equipping it militarily and devastating Russia economically hasn’t boosted Biden’s political approval ratings very much yet.
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The savagery of Putin’s invasion is bringing together Americans across the political spectrum in strong bipartisan opposition to a villain threatening the world. But how many Americans realize every action Biden has taken so far against Russia on their behalf has been opposed by most elected Republicans? House and Senate Republicans have attacked all the sanctions Biden’s coalition of world democracies have taken against Russia as too weak, but very few of them have voted for any sanctions at all against Russia.
GOP Refuses to Punish Putin
Despite all the rhetoric, Republicans have blocked Congress from passing a single piece of stand-alone legislation punishing Russia or aiding Ukraine. A $13.6 billion package of military, economic and humanitarian aid for Ukraine only passed because it was included in a massive “must-pass” $1.5 trillion spending bill to keep the federal government operating for the remainder of the fiscal year.
Even then, it was opposed by a majority of 31 Republicans in the Senate including Wisconsin’s Ron Johnson, who said he didn’t have time to read such a large bill providing $180 billion to his state for job creation, safe drinking water, health care, housing, transportation and education.
Instead of widely reporting Russia’s eagerness to renew its partnership with Trump, the media claimed Biden had made another “gaffe.” He didn’t. Biden, who previously described Putin as “a butcher” and “a war criminal” has never had any difficulty justifying everything he’s said about Putin, whose army just carried out a mass execution of civilians in Bucha outside Kyiv. “I was expressing moral outrage that I feel, and I make no apologies for it,” Biden said. “He shouldn’t be in power. People like this shouldn’t be ruling countries, but they do.”
Putin’s Favorite Ex-President
Republican leaders have a lot more explaining to do to justify their failure to distance their party from Trump, Russia’s favorite American president.
Even worse, Republican governors and legislatures across the country are passing laws to make U.S. elections more like Russia’s by destroying voting rights for Americans of color and others living in urban communities who are less likely to vote Republican. No Republican state has made it illegal to vote Democratic yet, but several would leave it up to Republican legislators to decide whether to count all the votes cast if they don’t like the results.
Legal investigations continue into seven states including Wisconsin won by Biden where fake Republican electors submitted fraudulent documents to the U.S. Senate and National Archives falsely claiming to cast those states’ electoral votes for Trump. The plot to steal the election by Trump and a goofy law professor in a cowboy hat failed when Vice President Mike Pence refused to violate the Constitution by throwing out Biden’s real electoral votes on Jan. 6.
It was a heart-breaking disappointment for both Trump and Russia, but not for America.
