While I will never pull the lever for a Donald Trump or Pantsuit presidency, I may be beginning to understand some of what motivates a Trump voter. The hypocrisy of the Obama administration, the Clinton campaign, and just about every mainstream media outlet in America was laid bare this week for anyone with a memory or the ability to conduct an honest Google search.
Just as the Democratic convention in Philadelphia was being gaveled in last week, leaders of that party were exposed, through the hostile act of Russian cyber-espionage (and their partners at Wikileaks), to have worked to ensure Clinton had the backing of the Democratic National Committee throughout her fight with Bernie Sanders for the party’s nomination. While the now-marooned inhabitants of Bernieland were appalled at this, anyone without a Pollyanna view of politics really wasn’t that surprised the DNC of 2016 was hell-bent on catapulting a Pantsuit through the glass ceiling.
After clutching their pearls over Russia’s actions, the Left and the mainstream media grew weak in the knees and fainted at the thought of those terrible Russkies. Unfortunately, they completely missed the fainting couch on their way down. The entire American Left hit its head on the floor and now has amnesia about having passively enabled a rising Russia over the last several years.
What Obama’s Russia Policy Hath Wrought
The Left’s litany of denial on Russian ascendency has been laundry-listed by many a conservative media outlet this week, but I feel obligated to hit a couple of the highlights. The Obama administration prided itself on believing every other country would see the light of Barack Obama’s halo in 2008 and change their ways, especially Russia. Upon assuming office, they offered Russia a diplomatic “reset,” because why not?
After paring down our alliances in Eastern Europe and our leading role in NATO with several measures aimed at appeasing Vlad the Putin (a policy Obama is finally reversing), Obama was caught on hot mic telling Putin’s fluffer Dimitri Medvedev that he’d have “more flexibility” to negotiate after the 2012 election.
Then came everyone on the Left’s favorite moment of the 2012 presidential debates, when Obama hit opponent Mitt Romney with that siiiiiick burn about getting his foreign policy from the 1980s when Romney dared to suggest Russia was our primary geopolitical foe. Obama’s “burn” and the media’s rush to laud it was confirmation for many and a harbinger for some that the majority of the Left had no idea what the word “geopolitical” meant and that an unchecked Russia was beginning to destabilize the present world order.
Obama’s reelection was soon followed by an arbitrary red line in Syria that left a power vacuum in the Middle East Russia was thrilled to fill, and by Russia’s not-so-peaceful takeover of pieces of Ukraine. Never mind that a Russian missile system brought down a passenger jet carrying 283 souls, either, this was all just a small glitch in the Pax Obama Matrix. Somewhere in there, Oliver Stone’s latest hero “fled” to Russia after selling out the American intelligence community. It was merely a coincidence that Moscow is where Edward Snowden landed, and Moscow has reaped the most benefits from his betrayal.
Now That Russia Threatens Democrats, It Matters
Throughout the last four years, the vast majority of the Left and their friends in the media have downplayed the growing threat posed by Russia and Obama’s feckless foreign policy as a whole. Why? Well, you don’t want to talk foreign policy and its failures when Obama’s one-time chief Pantsuited diplomat is running for his third term. But there is one way the Left can finally call Russia a threat to America, and that is if they find out the Russians are responsible for an attack on—wait for it—the Democratic Party!
Yes, now that our government has identified Russia as responsible for the cyber-attacks against the DNC, Russia is being recognized for the actual geopolitical foe Romney called them. While they carved up Ukraine, sheltered Snowden, destroyed any semblance of a Russian free press, exploited a Syrian civil war that has killed hundreds of thousands of innocent people, incited a refugee crisis that is pushing the European Union to its limits, and flexed their thuggish muscles wherever and whenever possible, it was not until they threatened the election of America’s first Pantsuit that Russia finally became a geopolitical foe in the eyes of America’s Left.
While Trump is no foe of Russia, such a naked example of hypocrisy (and there are plenty more beyond Obama’s Russian mismanagement) likely motivates many of his voters. Yet in that motivation lies more hypocrisy—you cannot be enraged at Obama’s handling of Russia, then turn around and vote for Trump, who has endorsed their cyber-espionage, praised Putin and his ilk, and even shared advisors with him.
In short, 2016 is absolutely awful, and that’s why I’m voting for SMOD.
