Courtesy of Bastrop Advertiser
April 22, 2021
By Bill McCann
My two uncles rarely talked about their combat experiences in Europe in World War II. But they disliked the Russians. Once, after a few beers, Uncle Chetty told us kids that U.S. forces, himself included, should have marched on to Moscow in 1945 – even though Russia was part of the former Soviet Union, then an ally that played a key role in winning the war. “They can’t be trusted,” I recall him saying. “It would have been better to deal with them then than later.”
Uncle Chetty may not have been an astute military strategist, or maybe it was the beer talking, but his distrust of Russia proved to be well founded. Our leaders generally viewed Russia warily over the years. Then former President Donald Trump came along.
When Trump cozied up to Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, Trump’s allies, including members of Congress, mostly were mute. When Trump blabbed classified information about ISIS to Russian officials in the Oval Office, his supporters sat silent. When Trump took Putin’s word over that of his own intelligence experts regarding Russia’s interference with the 2016 presidential election, his supporters mostly kept quiet. But while hardline Republicans held their tongues as Trump regularly coddled Putin, they had no problem defending Trump’s often outrageous behavior or comments, including his dangerous downplaying of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Rather than behave like the patriots they claim to be, Trump allies also played into Russia’s hands by spouting some of the same lies that Russians spread online ahead of 2020 presidential election. Russia’s disinformation campaign included supporting Trump, denigrating both Joe Biden and the Democratic Party, and undermining public confidence in the electoral process, according to a U.S. intelligence report declassified in March. Even after the election, Russians continued their propagandizing, including questioning the election results, the report stated. Last week, President Biden slapped sanctions on Russia, in part for trying to influence the 2020 election.
Trump and his far-right pals frequently have attempted to undermine our Constitution and threaten our democratic republic. For example, for years Trump has unfairly attacked the free press, calling it “the enemy of the people” when it exposed unethical behavior or incompetence by Trump or his appointees.
Well before the 2020 election, Trump made baseless claims about voter fraud. After losing the election, he kept repeating the big lie, while his cult followers, his stooges in Congress, his fawning right-wing media and Russian propagandists amplified it. The lie took hold even though court after court, including judges appointed by Trump, rejected the false allegations of widespread voter fraud. The lie led to the deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol by Trumpublicans who somehow thought they could save the country by stomping on the Constitution and installing Trump as imperial president. Recent polls show that most Republicans continue to believe Trump won. Putin must be pleased.
Far-right Republicans seem determined to make the U.S. more like Putin’s Russia by muzzling the free press and suppressing fair and free elections to maintain power. They gerrymander districts and try to control the vote to keep electing Republicans, who represent a minority party whose policies (if they have any) don’t represent the majority’s thinking.
Using the voter-fraud lie as a cudgel, Republicans in most states, including Texas, have pushed legislation that would suppress the vote particularly among people of color – who typically don’t vote for them. The first battleground has been Georgia where a new law would so severely reduce access to voting that even many businesses oppose it.
My uncles weren’t highly educated, but they were smart enough to see the Russians for what they were. Too bad many Republicans today can’t figure it out, or don’t care.
