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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWhy Trump Has a Soft Spot for Russia
July 21, 2018 at 7:01 am EDT By Taegan Goddard
Andrew Sullivan: Everything Trump did in Europe every horrifying, sick-making, embarrassing expostulation is, in some way, consistent, and predictable, when you consider how he sees the world. Its not a plan or a strategy as such. Trump is bereft of the attention span to sustain any of those. It is rather the reflection of a set of core beliefs and instincts that have governed him for much of his life. The lies come and go. But his deeper convictions really are in plain sight.
And they are, at root, the same as those of the strongmen he associates with and most admires. The post-1945 attempt to organize the world around collective security, free trade, open societies, non-zero-sum diplomacy, and multicultural democracies is therefore close to unintelligible to him. Why on earth, in his mind, would a victorious power after a world war be generous to its defeated foes? When you win, you dont hold out a hand in enlightened self-interest. You gloat and stomp. In Trumps zero-sum brain we should have kept the oil! it makes no sense. It has to be a con. And so todays international order strikes Trump, and always has, as a massive, historic error on the part of the United States.
This is why he has such a soft spot for Russia. Its kleptocratic elites see the world in just the same way. And if you wanted to undo the international system created by the U.S., an alliance with Russia is the first step youd take.
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https://politicalwire.com/2018/07/21/why-trump-has-a-soft-spot-for-russia/
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Why Trump Has a Soft Spot for Russia (Original Post)
DonViejo
Jul 2018
OP
bronxiteforever
(9,287 posts)1. Sullivan drives me crazy but he is correct here
From the NY Mag article this is based on:
But if I were an Estonian or a Montenegrin Id be nervous, wouldnt you? If I were a German, Id be unnerved. If I were still British, Id be very leery of door handles. Theres no Uncle Sam to look to for help anymore. The Americans are on the other side.
And this
Trump is simultaneously vandalizing the West, while slowly building a strongman alliance that rejects every single Western value. And Russia authoritarian, ethnically homogeneous, internally brutal, internationally rogue is at its center.
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/07/andrew-sullivan-why-trump-has-such-a-soft-spot-for-russia.html
This ought to scare everyone of us into action while we still can act.