Also on today’s menu:
Democracy vs. Authoritarianism
A video-conference call between President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin did not result in any breakthroughs on the Ukraine issue, but it did result in an agreement to keep talking in order to deter a possible invasion by the tens of thousands of Russian troops close to the Ukrainian border.
Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Biden told Putin directly that, if Russia further invades Ukraine, the United States and its European allies would respond with “strong economic measures” and would provide “additional defensive materiel” to the Ukrainians and fortify its NATO Allies in order to respond to such an escalation.
“We believe, from the beginning of this administration, that there is no substitute for direct dialogue between leaders, and that is true in spades when it comes to the U.S.-Russia relationship,” Psaki said. “Indeed, as President Biden said after his meeting in Geneva in June with President Putin, ‘Where we have differences, I want President Putin to understand why I say what I say and why I do what I do, and how we’ll respond to specific kinds of actions that harm America’s interests,’ …. That’s exactly what he did today.”
Meanwhile, a Russian foreign ministry official was quoted as saying the United States might be included for the first time in a group of countries working to end a seven-year war between Ukrainian government forces and pro-Russian separatists. “The presidents agreed to appoint their representatives, who will very promptly begin a discussion of this complex confrontational situation, a discussion of strategic security issues on the continent,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
Democracy vs. Authoritarianism
The legacy of former President Donald Trump is that many Republicans have rejected the kind of democracy that the United States fought for in World War II. Like Italian leader Benito Mussolini, they have come to reject the messiness of the democratic process.
Historian Heather Cox Richardson points out that Mussolini had been a socialist as a young man, but he grew frustrated at how hard it was to organize people. “The efficiency of World War I inspired Mussolini,” she writes. “He gave up on socialism and developed a new political theory that rejected the equality that defined democracy. He came to believe that a few leaders must take a nation toward progress by directing the actions of the rest. These men must organize the people as they had been organized during wartime, ruthlessly suppressing all opposition and directing the economy so that businessmen and politicians worked together. And, logically, that select group of leaders would elevate a single man, who would become an all-powerful dictator. To weld their followers into an efficient machine, they demonized opponents into an ‘other’ that their followers could hate.
“Italy adopted fascism, and Mussolini inspired others, notably Germany’s Hitler. Those leaders came to believe that their system was the ideology of the future, and they set out to destroy the messy, inefficient democracy that stood in their way.”
Fascists insisted that they were moving their country forward quickly and efficiently, but people in Italy and Germany were begging for food and shelter from the soldiers of democratic countries. “Democracy, FDR reminded Americans again and again, was the best possible government. Thanks to armies made up of men and women from all races and ethnicities — a mongrel population — the Allies won the war against fascism, and it seemed that democracy would dominate the world forever.”
Republican leadership is allowing Trump to dictate the future of the party, with potential candidates delaying throwing their hats into the ring until they know whether he will run again. They believe in Trump as Italians believed in Mussolini: As much as they dislike the man, they see him as the one who can get things accomplished — moving the country forward quickly and efficiently, even if citizens are left begging for food and shelter.
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