These are crazy times!
In 1972, Democrat George McGovern ran against then President Nixon on a peace platform. McGovern (D) was the hippies’ candidate. McGovern’s supporters were often chastised as “communists” and told to “go to Russia!”
In 2004, Kerry ran against Bush criticizing him for Iraq. Around that same time, Betty Castor (D) ran against Mel Martinez (R) in Florida for a US Senate seat. Martinez ridiculed her for calling the US the “global bully”. Republicans loved putting their Bush/Cheney bumper stickers on their pickup trucks, right next to the “How do you like US now!” with images of bombs falling on the middle east. Can anyone have imagined then a Republican President leading the charge towards peace, while Democrats chastised him and claimed he was doing it to help Russia?!
Yet here we are! A few months ago, Trump made an important first step towards peace with N. Korea, and Rachel Maddow chastised him for it and claimed he was doing it to help Russia. Now, Trump has announced that we will be withdrawing from Syria, as ISIS has been defeated, and surely enough, the “liberals” are chastising Trump for “helping Russia”?
How did we get here?
I have two theories. 1. “Liberals” hate Trump so much, they will simply oppose anything and everything he is for. 2. “Liberals” were never really advocates of peace, but of globalism. It’s unilateral warmongering that they oppose, not warmongering in and of itself.
So, either the “liberals” are blinded by their hatred of Trump, or they are prepared to inflict mass suffering and death on people in the Middle East who did NOTHING to us, just to test out their far-fetched theories of globalism and “nation-building”. I’m leaning toward #1, the hate theory. The reason being that Trump is also trying to pass a rather substantial prison reform bill right now (The First Step Act). Despite the fact that African Americans have for decades lamented racial injustice in the criminal justice system; the entire Congressional Black Caucus (all Democrats) opposes this bill that Trump supports.*
Just in case you think the entire American Left has gone insane, let me reassure you. There’s a few principled ones left on the left. Jimmy Dore never fails, and he has said that Trump’s recent announcement is good news, and has called out so-called “liberals” for their hypocrisy. “Trump has so completely ruined Liberals brains that they now publicly cheer on war and military confrontations with Nuclear powers”
And no, Dore is not shilling for Trump. He also criticized Trump for not also cutting military spending and re-investing it in America. You see, Dore has these things called principles. It’s something I vaguely remember liberals having many years ago, like, early Obama era (pre-Libya).
Another principled lefty, Cornel West, warned us about this two years ago. He warned us of the Democrats’ hypocrisy. “…when you actually look at the reinforcement of the new Jim Crow…that occurred under Democrats; it would persist under Hillary Clinton.” Given that Clinton’s very loyal Congressional Black Caucas is unanimously opposing Trump’s efforts to roll back the new Jim Crow, it seems West was right. On this matter of peace abroad:
“Can you imagine Russian troops in Mexico and Canada? What would US response be? Well that’s very much what NATO troops are vis a vis Russia…but that kind of provocation for Russia that has nuclear arms is the kind of thing that Hillary Clinton supported, and her connections to the Robert Kagans and Henry Kissingers are just frightening!”
I haven’t been able to find Cornel West’s take on Trump’s recent announcement, but I’d be eager to hear it. West has described the Trump administration as “neo-fascist” on multiple occasions, but he is not afflicted with blind partisan hatred.
Despite a handful of principle, it looks like most of the American “left” would rather hate Trump than give peace a chance.
**
Note(s):
*Since posting this, the CBC supported the final version of the First Step Act, and I and so many others are grateful for their insistence on a truly substantial bill before passing, rather than just a symbolic gesture.
**I’m not sure where Mr. Chase’s politics are, so I’m not putting him in with West and Dore. I just shared his post because it’s clever and adds some perspective to this lunacy.
politicallywag 