It's always nice to have the useless likes of dopey Thom Tillis, smarmy Mitt Romney, and lib-symp John Cornyn lecturing us about how we need to spend endless unaccountable money on Ukraine with no articulated strategic objective, as opposed to defending our own border, and how if we don't agree we must love Vladimir Putin and blah blah blah blah blah. These guys are totally hard-core opponents of the Russians, which is really butch. I and a lot of the people they are insulting actually served in the Cold War, but somehow we are expected to defer to these guys on Russia? They're taking a hard line against Vladimir Putin even as they take no line on the border, and they are surprised and offended that their party is rejecting them.
How clueless do you have to be to be surprised by that? They're clearly frustrated so they're not working to persuade. They're working to pummel us into submission. And it isn't going to work. After all, they hit like girls. At least some of them should know better. Before entering Republican politics, Mitt Romney was busy outsourcing American jobs and I have no idea or particular interest in what Thom Tillis was doing before he got elected. He was probably treading water in the sea of mediocrity, just like he's been doing as a senator. John Cornyn was a lawyer and a judge, so he should understand something about the art of persuasion. As a trial lawyer who just convinced 12 jurors to go my way a couple of weeks ago, let me offer some advice about how to get people to agree with you because apparently John has forgotten…
Stop insulting people and address the issues they are concerned about.
See, that's not so difficult. But apparently it is difficult for the establishment. None of these guys want to answer questions about why it is so vital to spend $60 billion on Ukraine, where the cash is going, or what objective it's going to fulfill. They want us just to nod and go along, but Republican voters are concerned about these things. They know Ukraine is corrupt – I know Ukraine is corrupt because I actually went there and trained Ukrainian soldiers. They also know that a lot of our elite seems to have close financial ties with Ukraine and they're concerned that this is just more corruption by our garbage ruling class. You might think that these Stalwarts of the Senate would take a moment to address the concerns of their voters, but no. No, they pose as tough guys taking on Putin and, instead of assuaging our concerns, they imply we are traitors for not obediently going along with them.
Well, let me be charitable here. That's not going to work, you complete morons.
Sometimes, I don't know whether the worst enemy of the Ukrainians is its enemies or its alleged friends. I don't know a better way to enhance the opposition to helping the Ukrainians than to take people’s legitimate concerns and treat them as treason. What makes it even more galling is that it is not treason to question support for Ukraine because we are not Ukrainians. We are Americans. Our first and primary objective must always be America's interests. If the Ukrainians' interests correspond with ours, great. That's nice. But if they don't, oh well.
And a lot of Americans wonder what interest we have in risking nuclear war. I've got to tell you that I would much prefer Vladimir Putin to take all of Ukraine over him dropping a hot rock on Los Angeles. San Francisco, another story. But you get my point. Americans are not treasonous for putting America first. Stop saying that they are. Stop implying that. It's insulting. It's stupid. It's counterproductive. I don't know why I have to tell you people this, but apparently I do.
And here's the thing – I'm not against Ukraine. I don't buy into the idea that Ukraine is an evil country. Putin is bad. Putin shouldn't have invaded Ukraine. I don't think it's crazy to help Ukraine with arms and ammunition, assuming we have a clear strategic objective and a likelihood of achieving it. I want the Russians to lose. But, you know, sometimes you want a pony, but you're probably not finding one under the Christmas tree. The fact is there are a lot more Russians than Ukrainians, and the Russians don't care how many Russians die winning this war. I think the war is lost. We can keep giving the Ukrainians arms to keep the stalemate meat grinder going, but what's the objective? If the objective is to destroy Russian equipment, how does that seem like a good idea? The Russians are just going to rebuild their forces with newer and more modern equipment. The war is just going to make the Russian army better because the bad generals are going to get fired and replaced, just like has happened in every other campaign Russia has experienced throughout history. The sanctions aren't making Russia poor. The sanctions seem to be enriching Russia and, not incidentally, driving it deeper into China's arms.
You know, the biggest foreign policy mistake America made in the last 30 years was not, remarkably, Iraq. It was the failure to bring Russia into the Western European fold. Russia was never going to be a close friend, but it didn't have to be an enemy. It didn't have to be in lockstep with Xi and the mullahs. But here we are. It didn't help that the elite found Russia to be a useful punching bag. The conservative elite was comfortable with Russia as an enemy and the liberal elite found it domestically useful to attack Russia as part of its attack on Donald Trump. Remember how Hillary Clinton, who started the Russiagate lie, was also the halfwit who humiliated our country with that stupid reset button? You don't have to make excuses for Russia to understand that Russians are historically paranoid and that expanding NATO around it was going to get a negative reaction. Yes, I know NATO was never going to invade Russia, but Russians don't believe that. Russians are crazy, but they think what they think, and you need to be smart enough to understand that you don't get to tell the enemy what it gets to think. What a disaster.
So, now you have the spectacle of Republicans outraged at their own base for not deferring. You have the ridiculous Thom Tillis explaining that if normal people knew what he knew, they would side with him. Well, dummy, that's not how this works. You don't just get our trust. You've got to earn it. If you have some facts or information you think would change our minds, maybe you should share it instead of just defaulting to calling us isolationist rubes or Putin party pals. You're not going to insult us into submission.
This goes for NATO, too. The entire American elite collectively wet itself when Donald Trump said that if NATO isn't going to be a serious organization where all its members participate fully in the defense of Europe, America under Trump isn't going to continue to carry their collective ruck. Good. Normal Americans don't understand why European security is so important that we have to devote American lives and treasure to it if the Europeans don't seem to think it is important enough to dedicate their lives and treasure to defending it. When I was in the Cold War in Germany – you know, the thing all the Russia tough guys missed – the Germans had dozens of heavy divisions ready, willing, and able to fight to defend the Fulda Gap. Today, the Krauts can barely cobble together a battalion. They are not a serious military because they don't have to be with Uncle Sucker picking up the tab. Well, enough of that. That's not going to sell. If you're making the argument that Donald Trump is bad because he expects Europeans to do their share of the job of defending Europe, you're not going to convince anyone of that outside of the swamp.
The majority of the Republican Party today is not composed of know-nothing isolationists. It's composed of know-far-too-much Jacksonians. They saw far too many of their sons and daughters, husbands and wives, brought home in boxes because of the gross incompetence of our elite over the last three decades. The suspicion normal Republicans feel toward traditional Republican Party foreign policy is a direct result of the total failure of the people behind the Republicans' foreign policy. Stop being offended that Republican voters have noticed that you have failed, and if you want to earn their trust again, stop failing.
And here's another hint – you won't stop failing until the border is closed.
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