“A thug, a bully and a murderer.”
Those are the words used by the late Senator John McCain to characterize Russian dictator Vladimir Putin.
“Genius. Wonderful. Very savvy.”
Those are the words of Donald Trump, the leader for the past seven years of Russia and Putin’s Fifth Column in the United States describing Putin’s actions in Ukraine.
Putin’s playbook is Hitler’s playbook. As Hitler claimed ethnic German speakers in Czechoslovakia (Sudetenland), Austria and Poland were minorities being persecuted in those countries (untrue) and he, Hitler was riding to their “rescue” by invading those countries, so Putin claims ethnic Russians in Ukraine are a minority being persecuted. That they are now the victims of “genocide.” That is simply a lie. There is no evidence of that. Putin to the “rescue.”
As Russian tanks prepare to crush the lives and bones of Ukrainians whose only transgression has been to strive for a better future by looking to the democratic countries of Europe and the United States, Donald Trump heaps praise on his master, Vladimir Putin, for his actions. Trump’s words, like those of American and British Fifth Columnists during World War II, are being played in Russia to convince the Russian people that Putin is not a thug, a bully and a murderer.
Yes, Donald Trump is a traitor. He is a traitor to everything America has stood for, if at times imperfectly for the last 240 years. He does not believe in democracy or freedom. He believes in dictatorship. He would like to have in the United States what Vladimir Putin has in Russia. What Adolph Hitler had in Nazi Germany. Absolute power.
How much evidence do his cult followers need? Is that what they want also? This is a war between democracy and autocracy in the United States and in the world. The choices made in the next two years will determine what America and the world will be in this century.
There are many Trump supporters in Lewis County and in the rest of our 3rd Congressional District. Republican candidate Joe Kent heartily embraces Trump and his MAGA anti-Americanism.
Kent and many other Trump supporters are military veterans. They should think long and hard about their support for a man that simply does not believe in the constitutional values of this country. As president he brazenly violated constitutional values. He sneered at them. The Constitution is what those in the military are sworn to protect, not Donald Trump or any other one person.
To those in our 3rd District who embrace a pathological liar and a true scoundrel like Trump I would say by doing so you dishonor yourselves and history will notice. I would also say you are much better people than anything Trump represents.
Marty Ansley
Cinebar
