Since Vladimir Putin’s Russia army invaded Ukraine in 2022, there have been at least 17,257 civilian fatalities, including 800 children, and over 53,693 injuries.
Experts say that because the Russian army has failed to gain ground this year in Ukraine as Putin believed it would, his strategy now is to target civilian populations directly in an effort to break the people’s will to keep fighting.
So what does the President of the United States do?
He lends a helping hand to Putin. First, he makes an illegal diesel oil deal to help him economically, next he lifts sanctions the Congress put on Russia because of the Ukrainian invasion, and then he restricts the communications speed of Starshield, the U.S. military satellite system tied to Elon Musk’s Starlink technology, that is critical to Ukraine’s defense against Russian missiles and drones.
During the restriction period Putin launched a barrage of 39 ballistic missiles and more than 850 drones over two nights.
Those attacks destroyed power to 600,000 Ukrainians as winter begins to set in, damaged all three of Kyiv’s combined heat-and-power plants, disabling key infrastructure the city needs, and caused significant damage to Ukraine’s oil and gas infrastructure.
On March 17, 2022, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Putin, accusing him of war crimes in Ukraine and being responsible for the unlawful deportation and transfer of Ukrainian children to Russia.
This is the man Donald Trump calls his friend. This is the man Trump supports over President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the people of Ukraine. This is the man Trump prefers over Ukraine’s democratically elected president.
Put bluntly, Trump has blood on his hands for the deaths of all Ukrainian adults and children who have died since he took office.
Economist Paul Krugman describes Trump as “a malignant narcissist who instinctively supports authoritarians and is preoccupied with revenge against anything and anyone that threatens his fragile grandiosity.”
In regard to Ukraine specifically, Krugman writes: “We can already see that happening in U.S. policy toward Ukraine. It has long been obvious that Trump loves dictators and despises democracy, and that he has special affection for Vladimir Putin and hatred for Volodymyr Zelenskyy. However, as long as there was some chance of limiting the damage in the midterm elections, Trump was cautious about explicitly taking Putin’s side. Over the past few weeks, however, Trump has grown ever more open about supporting Putin’s attempted war of conquest.”
Remember, he is talking about the President of the United States, not Putin or some other tyrant. And that bring us to the fundamental question now before the American people: Is there any moral or political reason to continue supporting such an anti-democratic, narcissistic, wanna-be authoritarian leader as our president?
There is no honest answer other than NO. At least, for all decent people who are not Trump Republicans.
Yes, the economy is in shambles because of Trump’s incompetence and corruption. Yes, we are in an endless war with Iran of Trump’s choosing. Yes, environmental regulations most Americans support are being gutted because of Trump’s paybacks to his billionaire corporate donors. Yes, he is treating legal immigrants who are helping America work economically like criminals. Yes, he is trying to make every national shrine, memorial, park, and art center into his own image.
But what looms above all of these things is something far more important – he has turned his back on democracy and betrayed his oath of office to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution.
His actions alone in regard to Ukraine make this plain to see for everyone who believes in truth. So has his using the Justice Department to bring phony charges against his political enemies. So has his attacks on the free press and his insistence that the Republican Congress rubber stamp everything he wants to do, eliminating the second equal branch of government.
And Trump Republicans in Congress have made it clear they are sticking with him, no matter what. If they retain control of the House and Senate, it is likely that we will not have the democracy our founders established two years from now. If that happens, the cost of living won’t matter because we will not be living in the same country in which all of us were born.
That brings us to a second fundamental question we, the people, now face: Is there any moral or political reason to vote for Republicans on November 3?
Once again the only honest answer is NO.
Remember, a vote for a Republican in the mid-terms is a vote for Trump. He said it himself. Vote as if he is on the ballot is his message to the country.
And that is precisely what the vote in two weeks is all about, not simply vote as if Trump is on the ballot, but vote because for all practical purposes he IS on the ballot.
In order to continue believing that most Americans are decent people and that most still believe in and want to preserve our democracy, I have to believe that on November 3rd a large majority of Americans are going to say NO to Republicans and NO to Trump.
And when we do the entire free world, especially the people of Ukraine, will once again believe that we, the people of the United States of America, want to be their friends and will stand firmly with them against morally corrupt tyrants, even when one of them is our own.
