The Moral War

Supporting Ukraine means you value democracy over fascism. Don't let Alt extremists tell you otherwise.

image via Bureau of Policy Analysis

by Ben Cohen

The main reason why so many people were terrified by the prospect of a Donald Trump presidency in 2016 was his very obvious autocratic tendencies.

I wasn’t interested in Trump’s platform or proposed policies. I was interested in his rhetoric and his adulation of violent dictators around the world. I’ve never felt fear in any country I’ve lived in before, but the rapid rise of Trump and the MAGA movement triggered what I can only describe as an extreme ancestral reaction. I finally felt what my Jewish ancestors spent their lives fleeing — an organized political movement built explicitly on the hatred of others.

The fear turned out to be well founded. Four years of deranged policies, a severely mismanaged pandemic, frayed international relations, relentless lying, inflamed racial tensions, extreme propaganda, and then a violent coup took America to the brink of destruction. The election of Joe Biden mercifully stopped the insanity and America was able to settle back into some sense of normalcy. The government began functioning again, relations with other countries were repaired, environmental treaties were re-signed, and the White House became a place for adults again.

Thankfully, America was back just in time for Vladimir Putin’s brutal attack on Ukraine. The non-fascist friendly adults in the White House recognized the existential threat this posed to the international order and quickly threw their weight behind Ukraine and Volodymyr Zelenskyy. More than that, President Biden revived a flagging NATO and rallied the entire Western world against Putin in a stunning display of statesmanship.

History repeats itself

Students of history understand exactly why Biden chose to defend Ukraine so forcefully. Thugs like Putin represent a grave threat to global peace and democratic rule, and if left unchecked could plunge the planet into a new world war. We have obvious historic precedent for this of course — the rise of Nazi Germany and the near end of global democracy.

To deny similarities between Adolf Hitler’s expansionist plans for Nazi Germany and Vladimir Putin’s for Russia is to ignore the historic record. As Charles Moore wrote in the Spectator days after Russia’s invasion:

Putin is displaying a righteous anger similar to Hitler’s as he invaded to ‘help’ Germans in the Sudetenland or Danzig. Like Hitler, Putin has long published his extreme versions of history, yet the democratic West paid little attention and neglected the international order. Hitler was emboldened by encountering western leaders. He said: ‘Our enemies are men below average, not men of action, not masters. They are little worms. I saw them at Munich.’ Putin may be making the same calculation, and he may be right. Hitler was righter militarily, than his generals, until Barbarossa. Putin, too, will have gained confidence from his previous conquests. ‘They won’t dare stop me,’ he must think, raking in the money from oil and gas. Today is his time. Tomorrow might not be.

Biden, it turns out, is no worm, and Putin now finds himself in the depths of a historical disaster — a military blunder akin to Barbarossa, the Nazi invasion of Russia that ultimately sealed Germany’s fate. Russians are now openly talking about the possibility of losing the war, with Wagner Group founder Yevgeny Prigozhin labeling it such a disaster that they should “change the top leadership”.

If the current trajectory continues, Russia is going to have to end the war and curb their territorial ambitions for good. Putin will struggle to stay alive if he loses the war let alone helm the Russian empire, and the West will have shown once again that for all their flaws, democracy works better than dictatorship.

Opposition to democracy, not war

There is opposition to American support of Ukraine across the political spectrum, most of it concentrated in Alt political circles.

The Alt Right believes that the war is none of America’s business, and therefore funding should be pulled and relations restored with Russia. Much of this has to do with the Alt Right’s reverence of Vladimir Putin — the strongman, anti-woke, virulently xenophobic hero of their fantasies.

“Why do I care what is going on in the conflict between Ukraine and Russia?” Tucker Carlson opined on his Fox News show last year. “Why shouldn’t I root for Russia? Which, by the way, I am”. The Alt Right despises the weak, so if Ukraine crumbles it only has itself to blame.

On the Alt Left, the conflict is viewed through the prism of reflexive anti-centrism. The war must be the fault of neoliberal elites (Hillary Clinton and the Democrats!), and should be denounced as a neocon, imperialist project. If you can’t find any evidence for this theory, you can simply make it up.

Both Alt circles are borrowing from each other too, creating broader opposition that has the potential to effect official policy. Alt Right politicians in Congress are doing their best to hold up funds to Ukraine, and with enormous amounts of leverage over Speaker McCarthy, they could make a real impact on Ukraine’s war efforts.

Choose: Democracy or extremism

Political centrism is about the long term health of democracy, and recognizing that swinging from one end of the spectrum to the other puts democracy in grave danger. So it must be protected at all costs.

There is no such thing as a political moderate in Russia — you are either pro-Kremlin or you are in jail. The proliferation of this kind of government happens far faster than most people appear to understand. Just as democracy spreads, so does fascism.

Just think about what would have happened if Donald Trump won in 2020. Trump would have done nothing to prevent Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, and would have continued undermining NATO. Without a unified NATO, there would be no reason not to continue Russia’s expansionist ambitions. After Ukraine, who would stop Russia going into Poland and other Baltic countries Putin has claimed are part of historic Russia? When fascism thrives in one country, it emboldens others too, creating a network effect that could become impossible to contain.

This might sound like hyperbole, but so would a full scale invasion of Ukraine just a few years ago.

The Alt Right and Alt Left are not interested in democracy, so the invasion of Ukraine — itself a fledgling democracy — is of no real concern. The fact that centrists and moderates are backing Ukraine means the Alt Right and Left now want a Russian victory. If it hurts President Biden, then it is a victory for them too. And if Trump gets elected, then even better — the Alt Right get exactly what they want, and the Alt Left gets to bask in the destruction of political centrism. When political centrism dies, democracy goes with it.

The war is not over

This scenario is still a distinct possibility if Donald Trump gets elected again. If the US pulls funding from Ukraine, Russia gets the opportunity it needs to turn the war around.

What would the world look like with an emboldened Vladimir Putin and a resurgent Donald Trump? Would there be any respect for international law, or any of the institutions critical to its survival? Would China be more or less likely to invade Taiwan knowing there would be no unified Western opposition? We would be entering an entirely new world order where autocracy, military might and cruelty reign.

This is not the world our ancestors fought for when Adolf Hitler stormed through Europe to make ‘Lebensraum’ for the German people. Fascism is a cancer that metastasizes rapidly, and only force can stop it. The Ukrainians have bravely taken up that fight, battling for not just their country, but the world too.

We do not have physical battles to fight here in the West, but a war of ideas rages on. The Alt political movements in America are finding new and innovative ways to undermine the center and create Alt narratives that distort reality and erase history. From Tucker Carlson to Elon Musk, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard, highly effective networks of power and influence are spreading at breakneck speed. The war is not what you think it is, we have a greater truth to tell you.

We must fight their rampant disinformation and propaganda if democracy is to prevail. Because if the center falls here, it falls in Eastern Europe too. Supporting Ukraine does not make you a warmonger or a neocon, it makes you a supporter of democracy. And if anyone tells you otherwise, you’ll know what side of history they are on.

Read an excerpt of this week’s Members Only essay:

Trump's Cult Power Appears To Be Fading Away

What does it mean if you order an insurrection (again) and no one shows up?

JUSTIN ROSARIO

Image via ABC News

by Justin Rosario

In case you missed it, Donald Trump was arrested last week. Again. Ah, who am I kidding? Your ribs are probably still aching from all the laughter. I know mine are. I would have laughed a lot harder but I was waiting for a serious outbreak of violence. Unlike Trump’s New York City arrest, there was a very real possibility something would occur this time.

You see, no one really thinks Trump is facing years in prison over white collar and election crimes in NYC. It’s not that no one thinks he can’t be found guilty — he absolutely can. It’s that, generally speaking, this is not the sort of stuff rich and famous people go to jail for. This is America. Jail is for the little (mostly non-white) people. It’s extremely unusual for the wealthy to see a day behind bars no matter how much they lie and cheat and steal — especially concerning tax and election fraud. Frankly, I’m still amazed that Elizabeth Holmes is actually in prison right now.

But Trump’s federal charges are an entirely different beast. Those are not the kinds of crimes you walk away from with a slap on the wrist. Those are the ones that land you in jail for a very long time. As loudly as the alt-left is crying about over-classsification, only an idiot or a Russian asset thinks refusing to return nuclear secrets and America’s detailed plans for attacking another country is not a criminal offense.

So, yeah, Trump is real in trouble now. Real enough that he pushed the domestic terrorism button to rally his true believers.

But what does it mean if you order an insurrection (again) and no one shows up?…

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