January 28, 2024

Note by Ukraine Today: This editorial piece and the writer’s views are their own, and do not necessarily reflect those of Ukraine Today.

By OFP

Politics is a dirty business. This old aphorism can be applied not only to trash countries, dictatorships, and other autocracies and kleptocracies, but also to democracies. This is true even for the oldest democracy in the world, the United States.

The current mess in the House of Representatives created by a small group of pro-russian Republicans and their boss, former president Donald Trump, also a pro-russian, are perhaps the dirtiest that we’ve seen in this great nation of ours since the days of Watergate. As a matter of fact, the current events prevailing in the House are more dangerous to our nation than Watergate ever was. These shenanigans are harmful to the country in various ways. They not only manage to paralyze our government but also undermine our democracy and what might be even worse; they encourage the rogue nations of this world to act more aggressively. How could we ever hope to endure any wars with China and North Korea or whomever if we can’t even cope with helping Ukraine?

It is easy to see and quite understandable that the leaderships in Moscow, Peking, Teheran, and Pyongyang are downright giddy with excitement. As ironic as it may sound, I think it’s safe to assume that they are thanking their gods, or whatever it is they worship, there is such a thing as Donald Trump and MAGA.

Donald Trump and the Republican MAGA faction of the House of Representatives have proven to be the sand in the gearbox of our government. The gears and bearings are already overburdened with a myriad of problems that this country is facing, but MAGA sand has the potential to destroy it. If this sounds a bit melodramatic, it’s important to keep a sharp focus on history and compare it with our current state of affairs. Many other empires and nations throughout humanity’s history have succumbed to internal conflicts rather than external ones. Why should we not be heading in the same direction? With empty rhetoric, lies, and false promises, Donald Trump has managed to polarize this country like no other demagogue before him. The population is split and so is our government. His fans are eating his brown stinky stuff like it’s the best stuff in the world.

A recent Newsweek article is titled, “Trump’s Massive Monetary Verdict in Carroll Trial Sets MAGA on Fire”

Indeed, it doesn’t take much at all to make this crowd angry. Everything that goes against the group’s hero is reason enough to spit poison on everyone they feel is responsible, and, in the case of the trial, not responsible. They have trounced the judge and the judicial system across social media platforms and extreme-right outlets because they claim it was an unfair trial, a politically motivated verdict, or witch hunt, if you will. But, it was a jury that made the verdict and not the judge. And, our judicial system might not be perfect, but it’s still working just fine. It’s simply the verdict that doesn’t fit into their program of hero worship.

Every legal case against Trump is being assailed and criticized by them. Instead of looking closer at Trump’s many illegal missteps, they prefer to focus on our judicial system.

“Trump Can’t Stop Praising Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, and Kim Jong Un“

In another recent case, some Republicans have suggested to Texas Governor Greg Abbott he should ignore the United States Supreme Court‘s ruling that the federal government has authority to remove Texas’ razor-wire barriers at the U.S.-Mexico border. This is not only dangerous for our democracy, but almost treasonous.

Trump and the MAGA crowd have not shied away from holding Ukraine hostage to put pressure on the President and the Democrats to make a deal on border security.

In an interview on October 2023 with Fox News host Sean Hannity, Mike Johnson said, “We can’t allow Vladimir Putin to prevail in Ukraine, because I don’t believe it would stop there, and it would probably encourage and empower China to perhaps make a move on Taiwan. We have these concerns,”

However, as it turns out months later, these had been just empty words. Mr. Johnson is yet another shameful politician who has disgraced himself and proven his untrustworthiness by reneging from the above statement just to benefit another man’s political goals. Mike Johnson’s current stance is now allowing just that what he warned against in Hannity’s interview.

After weeks of debate, President Biden finally relented to the House Republican demands to make our borders more secure. In a statement late Friday, Biden said that the policies proposed would “be the toughest and fairest set of reforms to secure the border we’ve ever had in our country.” He also assured of using new emergency authority to shut down the border as soon as he could sign it into law.

However, as some have previously predicted, the hardliner Republicans have already torpedoed this proposal. This was ordered by Donald Trump.

This is significant in that they are now not only holding Ukraine hostage but now even the United States of America. The MAGA rhetoric about protecting the country from massive immigration and drug trafficking problems is now forced to take a back seat just to benefit Donald Trump’s political ambitions. The reasoning behind the order was because Trump doesn’t want President Joe Biden to get a win ahead of the 2024 presidential election.

Trump’s demand to refuse any deals with President Biden or the Democrats influences the workings of our government negatively at a time when so much is at stake. Trump’s and the MAGA crowd’s conduct is dirty politics in its filthiest form that can be attained in a democracy. Their behavior not only holds one nation hostage but two nations, simply for political gains. There is absolutely nothing to see about this sort of conduct that could possibly make America great again. This reeks of downright subversion and assists the deterioration of an already distressed institution that is Washington politics. It also feeds the hungry dictatorships across this globe. It encourages them to act more aggressively. MAGA makes possible to open the Pandora’s Box … for us to enter a house of horrors.

It’s true that the Democrats are not completely innocent in all of this. The opening of our borders, amongst other things, has given rise to the MAGA idea in the first place. They have refused to do anything concrete about the border problems for a long time, despite countless reports showing what a myriad of negative consequences that this policy is having on our nation. Their personal doctrines were more important than the safety and wellbeing of our country and the many communities and citizens who had suffered from it. They remained stubborn even as the MAGA gang made any further Ukraine aid into a hostage of their border security demands.

Trump Said He’s Cozier With ‘Tougher And Meaner’ Dictators, Calls Them Smarter Than Biden

Nonetheless, the Democrats are not holding our country hostage to pressure the opposition to relent on any sort of demands. They are not holding Ukraine hostage, either. The House Republicans are doing both.

As the dangerous quarrels in the House persist so does the wanton killing of Ukrainians and the destruction of their country, and this day in, day out, and night by night. But, this doesn’t seem to bother the MAGA crowd one bit. Will they change their minds once China, Iran or North Korea see their behavior as a sort of green light to conduct their own “special military operations”?

One last point. It’s really no secret that Donald Trump is a big fan of dictators and autocrats. He never lavishes praise on democratic leaders but plenty on such filthy characters as Vlad Putin, Kim Jong Un, or Victor Orban. Does Trump have their pictures hanging in his house? Maybe Adolf Hitler’s and Josef Stalin’s, too? How much longer will his fans in the United States be blind in this regard? Trump’s overly friendliness with such dark characters alone should be a warning enough about the man’s depraved mindset. Why won’t his fans question the fact that Putin and his regime desperately want a Trump back in the White House? How much more bad things can Trump do and say before his support crumbles? How depraved is the population of the United States to support such a dubious character, no matter what he does or says? Why are his fans ignoring all the warning signs?

Many questions, but no answers…

Trump holding Ukraine hostage was bad enough, but he and his gang now also holding the United States hostage is the last straw.