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Russia
The Score Stands at 1 - 1
Forget about the multitude of World Cups in sports. Forget about the numerous World Championships in international athletic competitions. Forget about the different World Series events. As exciting as they all are, not one of them matters in the greater scheme of life. None of them makes a significant difference on world history; on how we live our lives; on whether or not we survive. Only one major competition truly matters. Call it the World Cup, or World Championship, or World Series of GOVERNANCE. The current score is Vladimir Putin 1, Democracy 1.
Putin inherited the Russian State while it was still a fledgling democracy and immediately began to morph it into an autocracy. His rallying cry was rooted in a forlorn despondency as he openly lamented the demise of the Soviet Union. In 2005 he stated that the collapse of the Soviet Union was the “greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century.”
Deep in what passes for his soul, Putin knew that he could not reclaim Russia’s former status without dismantling liberal democracy around the globe. Although he attempted to achieve his aims in some of the former Soviet satellite states, his most brazen venture was the disruption of the American democratic process in 2016. The result was that he took an early lead: 1 - 0. He proudly told his own people that liberal democracy did not work and was on the decline.
In one sense Putin chose the perfect candidate to foist upon an unsuspecting American public: Donald Trump. This was a man not only deeply indebted to Russian oligarchs. Trump was also a person for whom democracy meant nothing. He lived by the mantra of Lord Voldemort: “There is no good or evil, there is only power and those too weak to seek it.” But the deceptive reality remains. Voldemort’s mantra is itself the definition of evil.
Many bottles of expensive vodka were consumed as Putin watched Trump seek to demolish the United States Constitution. If he had succeeded, democracies the world over would have fallen. As insurance, Putin’s forces began to interfere with elections throughout Europe. But his eyes were always on the prize: The USA.
Putin interfered again in 2020. But this time he failed. As Biden repeated many times, this election was a battle for the soul of the nation. As true and critical as that statement was, something even more foundational was at stake.
Over four years Trump, systematically sought to emasculate the Constitution. He employed executive orders, relying on an acquiescent and sycophantic Republican congress, and a court system corrupted by numerous unqualified, but Republican-confirmed judges.
Give Trump credit. He telegraphed his intentions by claiming that the second article of the Constitution gave him authority “to do whatever” he wanted. Even to point of wrecking that same constitution. He saw no need to respond to Congressional inquiries or even subpoenas. He declined to turn over documents; he regularly refused to allow members of his administration to appear before congressional committees. With the Republican Party willingly enabling Trump, Putin sat back and drank—every sip of vodka better than the one before.
But Putin did not learn the lesson of history. 2020 would see the giant awake again. Although not as cinematically dramatic as Pearl Harbor, the United States once again woke from its slumber. Americans were not about to allow their democracy to be destroyed. More citizens voted in 2020 than in any other election in U.S. history. At this writing, Biden’s count of the vote was more than any person who ever ran for office—four million plus votes over Trump’s tally. As Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo tweeted, “Welcome back America!”
The United States is not the only victor in the 2020 election. The entire world has exhaled a sigh of relief. First, because the tense, fraught and exhausting last four years are approaching an end. Secondly, because the cause of democracy has been strengthened. For now.
It is also important to recognize that the contest is not over. Putin’s powerful army of GRU internet operatives are constantly at work. For the rest of the world, there is no going it alone. Democratic governments must stand together and support one another. The alliances that have maintained freedom for more than seventy years must be reinforced.
For now the score is Putin 1, Democracy 1.
But the world of Putin, Trump and Voldemort is driven by power. And it remains an evil world. My bet is on democracy. Its foundation is not power. It is truth. As it turns out, Voldemort was wrong. There is good and evil. Or, as it is phrased in American lore, “Truth, Justice and the American way.” Trump is gone and Putin has no chance.
Putin inherited the Russian State while it was still a fledgling democracy and immediately began to morph it into an autocracy. His rallying cry was rooted in a forlorn despondency as he openly lamented the demise of the Soviet Union. In 2005 he stated that the collapse of the Soviet Union was the “greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century.”
Deep in what passes for his soul, Putin knew that he could not reclaim Russia’s former status without dismantling liberal democracy around the globe. Although he attempted to achieve his aims in some of the former Soviet satellite states, his most brazen venture was the disruption of the American democratic process in 2016. The result was that he took an early lead: 1 - 0. He proudly told his own people that liberal democracy did not work and was on the decline.
In one sense Putin chose the perfect candidate to foist upon an unsuspecting American public: Donald Trump. This was a man not only deeply indebted to Russian oligarchs. Trump was also a person for whom democracy meant nothing. He lived by the mantra of Lord Voldemort: “There is no good or evil, there is only power and those too weak to seek it.” But the deceptive reality remains. Voldemort’s mantra is itself the definition of evil.
Many bottles of expensive vodka were consumed as Putin watched Trump seek to demolish the United States Constitution. If he had succeeded, democracies the world over would have fallen. As insurance, Putin’s forces began to interfere with elections throughout Europe. But his eyes were always on the prize: The USA.
Putin interfered again in 2020. But this time he failed. As Biden repeated many times, this election was a battle for the soul of the nation. As true and critical as that statement was, something even more foundational was at stake.
Over four years Trump, systematically sought to emasculate the Constitution. He employed executive orders, relying on an acquiescent and sycophantic Republican congress, and a court system corrupted by numerous unqualified, but Republican-confirmed judges.
Give Trump credit. He telegraphed his intentions by claiming that the second article of the Constitution gave him authority “to do whatever” he wanted. Even to point of wrecking that same constitution. He saw no need to respond to Congressional inquiries or even subpoenas. He declined to turn over documents; he regularly refused to allow members of his administration to appear before congressional committees. With the Republican Party willingly enabling Trump, Putin sat back and drank—every sip of vodka better than the one before.
But Putin did not learn the lesson of history. 2020 would see the giant awake again. Although not as cinematically dramatic as Pearl Harbor, the United States once again woke from its slumber. Americans were not about to allow their democracy to be destroyed. More citizens voted in 2020 than in any other election in U.S. history. At this writing, Biden’s count of the vote was more than any person who ever ran for office—four million plus votes over Trump’s tally. As Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo tweeted, “Welcome back America!”
The United States is not the only victor in the 2020 election. The entire world has exhaled a sigh of relief. First, because the tense, fraught and exhausting last four years are approaching an end. Secondly, because the cause of democracy has been strengthened. For now.
It is also important to recognize that the contest is not over. Putin’s powerful army of GRU internet operatives are constantly at work. For the rest of the world, there is no going it alone. Democratic governments must stand together and support one another. The alliances that have maintained freedom for more than seventy years must be reinforced.
For now the score is Putin 1, Democracy 1.
But the world of Putin, Trump and Voldemort is driven by power. And it remains an evil world. My bet is on democracy. Its foundation is not power. It is truth. As it turns out, Voldemort was wrong. There is good and evil. Or, as it is phrased in American lore, “Truth, Justice and the American way.” Trump is gone and Putin has no chance.
The Soul of a Nation
06/10/20 17:54 Filed in: Presidential Election | American principles
Former vice president Joe Biden did not decide to run for president in reaction to policy differences with Donald Trump. Those differences always exist, sometimes even within the same political party. Biden chose to run because he saw the destructive things Trump was doing to the core principles of the United States; the damage he was inflicting on the country’s standing and reputation in the world.
There are innumerable examples, stacked one upon another, making it nearly impossible to grade them from bad to worse to worst. But arguably the two most significant were Trump’s equivocating on the issue of racial hatred, (the now famous “There were good people on both sides” statement), and the ripping of toddlers from their parents and then imprisoning these little children in cages. The latter example can only come from a man who has no soul. And if a nation allows that action to continue, the only conclusion is that the country is equally soul-less.
Enter Joe Biden. He began his campaign by declaring that this is a fight for the soul of the nation. He knows that we are, that we must be, better than this. Better than what Trump has made of us. He knows that America cannot survive if it continues to wallow in the gutters into which Trump has dragged us.
There are, of course, people who disagree with Biden’s policy proposals and are hesitant to vote for him. After forty-seven years in politics he is accustomed to that. He expects it. But Biden also knows that the country needs an opposition party. It is not healthy for a democracy to run by a single party. That is what we expect from countries like China, Russia and a host of other autocracies, very few of which even pretend to be democratic.
An opposition party need not agree or capitulate on every issue. The two parties must balance each other. They must compromise. They must work together for the common good. And that requires a soul.
Today Trump has remade the Republican party in his own image. And in virtually every act as president, he has demonstrated that he has no soul. That may also be the reason he has no remorse for anything he has ever done. Recall that prior to his election Trump said he had never asked God for forgiveness. That admission set up a new paradigm for irony. For these days when Americans go to churches, synagogues, mosques, temples and other houses of worship, they are greeted by a God of remorse. A God who asks the people’s forgiveness for having created Donald Trump.
Joe Biden is not deterred. He still seeks to restore the fundamental values, the basic goodness that has defined America. He knows that there have always been failures. Our history is checkered at best. We have enslaved and unjustly imprisoned our people. We have denied many groups a myriad of rights. Even today there are continuing attempts to restrict or flat out deny the right to vote—the most fundamental principle of democracy. But before Trump, we had never been a country without a soul.
One fading example of America’s goodness can be seen in the way we rally around the underdog; the way we had been accustomed to setting aside our differences when someone suffers or is in need.
When Trump was diagnosed with COVID-19, Americans of all persuasions supported him. People of faith prayed for him. Some Americans thought that this deadly diseased would enable him to empathize with the millions of other Americans who have contracted the virus; that he would understand and express sympathy for the more than 210,000 who have died. Maybe Americans are not so much good, as they are naïve.
Trump emerged from the hospital, neither human nor humbled. He puffed himself up like the rooster who thinks his crowing makes the sun rise. In Trump’s case he thinks his arrogance will cause COVID to retreat. He is not only soulless. He is heartless.
I still think Joe Biden is on to something. I still think that our country can reclaim its soul. But I also think that there is room in that soul for one negative. I would never suggest we pray that Trump dies. But maybe we don’t have to pray that he survives.
There are innumerable examples, stacked one upon another, making it nearly impossible to grade them from bad to worse to worst. But arguably the two most significant were Trump’s equivocating on the issue of racial hatred, (the now famous “There were good people on both sides” statement), and the ripping of toddlers from their parents and then imprisoning these little children in cages. The latter example can only come from a man who has no soul. And if a nation allows that action to continue, the only conclusion is that the country is equally soul-less.
Enter Joe Biden. He began his campaign by declaring that this is a fight for the soul of the nation. He knows that we are, that we must be, better than this. Better than what Trump has made of us. He knows that America cannot survive if it continues to wallow in the gutters into which Trump has dragged us.
There are, of course, people who disagree with Biden’s policy proposals and are hesitant to vote for him. After forty-seven years in politics he is accustomed to that. He expects it. But Biden also knows that the country needs an opposition party. It is not healthy for a democracy to run by a single party. That is what we expect from countries like China, Russia and a host of other autocracies, very few of which even pretend to be democratic.
An opposition party need not agree or capitulate on every issue. The two parties must balance each other. They must compromise. They must work together for the common good. And that requires a soul.
Today Trump has remade the Republican party in his own image. And in virtually every act as president, he has demonstrated that he has no soul. That may also be the reason he has no remorse for anything he has ever done. Recall that prior to his election Trump said he had never asked God for forgiveness. That admission set up a new paradigm for irony. For these days when Americans go to churches, synagogues, mosques, temples and other houses of worship, they are greeted by a God of remorse. A God who asks the people’s forgiveness for having created Donald Trump.
Joe Biden is not deterred. He still seeks to restore the fundamental values, the basic goodness that has defined America. He knows that there have always been failures. Our history is checkered at best. We have enslaved and unjustly imprisoned our people. We have denied many groups a myriad of rights. Even today there are continuing attempts to restrict or flat out deny the right to vote—the most fundamental principle of democracy. But before Trump, we had never been a country without a soul.
One fading example of America’s goodness can be seen in the way we rally around the underdog; the way we had been accustomed to setting aside our differences when someone suffers or is in need.
When Trump was diagnosed with COVID-19, Americans of all persuasions supported him. People of faith prayed for him. Some Americans thought that this deadly diseased would enable him to empathize with the millions of other Americans who have contracted the virus; that he would understand and express sympathy for the more than 210,000 who have died. Maybe Americans are not so much good, as they are naïve.
Trump emerged from the hospital, neither human nor humbled. He puffed himself up like the rooster who thinks his crowing makes the sun rise. In Trump’s case he thinks his arrogance will cause COVID to retreat. He is not only soulless. He is heartless.
I still think Joe Biden is on to something. I still think that our country can reclaim its soul. But I also think that there is room in that soul for one negative. I would never suggest we pray that Trump dies. But maybe we don’t have to pray that he survives.