Unfit DeSantis Stands Down to Putin
Unfit DeSantis Stands Down to Putin
Ron DeSantis broke with more hawkish Republicans to align himself with Donald Trump’s weak and obsequious appeasement of Putin.
This is sadly not a surprise.
Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis broke with more hawkish Republicans to align himself with Donald Trump’s position on Ukraine, in what can be read as a sly wink to Russia to simply wait out their illegal invasion of Ukraine while helping the Republican get elected because after that, the U.S. will stand down.
Wink, Wink, Vlad
DeSantis announced via a statement read by Tucker Carlson on his pro-Russian propaganda Fox News show that the U.S. has no business being “entangled” in Ukraine, suggesting the President should be focused instead on issues at home.
DeSantis’ statement reads as isolationist when it comes to Russia; i.e., what Republicans used to call weak:
“While the U.S. has many vital national interests — securing our borders, addressing the crisis of readiness with our military, achieving energy security and independence, and checking the economic, cultural and military power of the Chinese Communist Party — becoming further entangled in a territorial dispute between Ukraine and Russia is not one of them.”
How Many Lies?
So many lies in such a polished little package. Let’s unpack.
Protecting Ukraine is vital to U.S. interests and to global democracy. DeSantis knows this, so his suggestion otherwise is disingenuous, meant to fool voters.
There is no territorial dispute between Ukraine and Russia.
Russia illegally invaded Ukraine in a war of aggression. The solution to this problem is for them to leave. To cease their war. To stop trying to steal land from a sovereign nation. Ukraine became a sovereign nation in 1991. They have an inalienable right to self-determination.
They do not owe Russia parts of their country any more than the United States owes Canada parts of its country. This notion that a struggling democracy should cede ground to what has become a brutal dictatorship is patently absurd and transparently cynical.
When a politician tries to strawman like by pointing to home interests as if they can only be attended by stopping other actions, it’s worth pointing out that a president should be capable of handling both giving aide to Ukraine and dealing with events at home. These two are not mutually exclusive. For instance, President Joe Biden is doing so right now. Nor is this a budget issue, as there is typically nothing Republicans love more than defense spending.
DeSantis says we need to check the power of China, but China is aligning itself with Russia, with Chinese President Xi Jinping’s diplomatic support of Russia and reported plans to travel to Russia to meet Vladimir Putin to offer to broker a “peace” plan that will no doubt involve Ukraine giving up its freedom.
We can’t check China’s power without checking Russia’s expansionism.
Putin’s Expansionism
It’s not just the Chinese President on board with Putin. On Tuesday, Syria President Assad arrived in Moscow for meetings with Putin.
Vladimir Putin has evolved from running a hybrid autocracy to a hard autocracy to now the expansionist impulses that appear to be going in the direction of Adolf Hitler. (I am not comparing Putin to Hitler; I am comparing his bloodthirsty expansionism as something that could quickly devolve into that of Hitler’s.)
There is no confusion as to where Putin will take his invasion of Ukraine if he is not stopped.
Lest anyone be gaslit by Russian propagandists from any quarter (there are some on the far left as well):
Republicans Led by Appeasers
What happened to the national security party?
The two top polling potential Republican candidates for president for 2024, one of them the current party leader, are both standing down to Russia.
Obsequious and weak.
“Losers,” Donald Trump would say, if it weren’t him at issue.
Quid Pro Quo Again, Please
That DeSantis allowed this to be announced on busted liar Tucker Carlson’s Putin-sycophantic show should make the message very clear: HELLO RUSSIA! HELP ME GET ELECTED AND I WILL HELP YOU!
The Trump years taught us all that it’s easy to send messages to Putin through the media so there is no trace, so to speak, of a direct conversation. (This mimics mafia techniques to avoid prosecution.)
But we all know better now. Right? We know what this is. It’s stand down, white flag appeasement of a hard autocrat with expansionist fever with a winky wink: help me and I’ll help you.
DeSantis Rules as a Tiny Despot
DeSantis isn’t new to the anti-freedom game. He’s made a name for himself by leaning into autocracy by following Viktor Orban’s model as a control freak who tells businesses what to do and students what they can read.
Bowing down to Putin is expected from DeSantis. He is already governing like a wannabe autocrat in all of the expected ways laid out by Orban at CPAC.
Russian Interests Embedded in GOP?
A not insignificant portion of the Republican Party has aligned itself with Russia. This was made especially clear when then candidate Donald Trump was accused of forcing the RNC to change their 2016 platform to weaken support for U.S. aid to Ukraine.
Then Russia helped Trump win as the National Rifle Association helped two of Moscow's agents ahead of the election, acting essentially as a foreign asset for Russia supporting Republican candidates.
Republican operative Jesse Benton was convicted of funneling Russian donation money to Trump’s 2016 campaign.
Trump was hardly alone. Republicans like Mitch McConnell, Marco Rubio, Lindsey Graham, and more took $7.35 million from an oligarch who is the business partner of two of Russian president Vladimir Putin's favorite oligarchs.
Pro-Democracy Forces Try to Hold the Line
On Monday, President Biden, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced as part of a trilateral pact (“AUKUS”) that the U.S. is working with the U.K. to get nuclear-propelled, conventionally-armed subs to Australia. This is a move to enhance the stability of the Indo-Pacific region and preserve the rights of each country to make sovereign decisions free from coercion.
The trilateral pact is also meant to counter global threats to democracy including destabilizing forces in North Korea and Iran, China’s increasing military might and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Biden’s core strategy is to align our allies in the Pacific with our allies in the Atlantic. A crosslink of allies to hold the line of global democracy… hopefully. Without Biden, without the U.S. in that picture, the pro-democracy allies would be gravely weakened.
I spoke about this Monday evening on the BBC:
Unfit for Office
By announcing their stand down to Putin, DeSantis and Trump have given Russia the wink that all they need to do is get one of these anti-democratic, soft fascists into the White House and the world’s democracies will be substantially weakened and much easier to take down.
Ron DeSantis has joined Trump in being Putin’s lackey, and that is dangerous for the world. Any candidate from any party who claims a war in Europe is not threatening or vital to U.S. interests is unfit for office and is lying to you.
Two phrases stand out for me: "Territorial Dispute" and "NRA." The first one reflects the helplessly obvious attempt to "language away" the reality of Russia's unprovoked invasion that led to war, now over one year old. The second one reflects the alignment of the NRA's interests with Russia's support of a Republican administration. Both are shamelessly antithetical to the interests of the United States, and to the hope of universal democracy.
DeSantis/Santos isn't even yet a Russian puppet; he is a self-lobbying wanna-be who offered his support to Putin without first being asked or promised return support. This is a different approach from that of another equally self-centered, short-sighted elected official, Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who actually DID make promises, as we all know - but - yes - for similar self-aggrandizing reasons. We see the results of his promises kept, in newspaper headlines every day: unprepared, fatuous, and thoughtlessly inept attempts by attention-seeking masqueraders, to prove non-facts, and, to provide cover for publicly committed and documented crimes.
Interestingly, back in the Before Times, waaaaaaayyyyyy back in 2015, DeSantis was accusing Obama of not defending democracy strongly enough and advocating for Ukraine to be given offensive weapons to oppose Putin's takeover of Crimea and Donbas. The TV footage of this is Out There.