Losing the Anti-War Thread
Why Anti-War Progressives and Isolationist Republicans can't be anti-war
Oceania was at war with Eurasia: therefore Oceania had always been at war with Eurasia. The enemy of the moment always represented absolute evil, and it followed that any past or future agreement with him was impossible.
Glenn Greenwald rightly calls out the supposedly enlightened anti-War Progressive Democrats for unanimously lining up behind the security state apparatus in funding the war in Ukraine, and for even seeming to say America is actually at war with Russia. Unfortunately, even if these Democrats weren’t craven moral vacuums, they still wouldn’t be able to vote against a war with Russia, prior public posturing aside. Why is Russia the enemy of the Progressive Democrats? Why must America fight to the last Ukrainian to defeat Putin? The Progressive Democrats have once again lost their Thread. Perhaps we can help them find it.
The Russians are Coming, the Russians are Coming
But why is Putin the enemy of Progressive Democrats, anyway? Putin is the enemy because we have always been at war with Eurasia.
Since 2014, our Democratic politicians have been sounding the midnight alarm. American voters have been fed a steady diet of anti-Putin and anti-Russian propaganda since the first invasion of Ukraine in 2014. When Trump defeated Clinton in 2016, it reached a fever pitch. Donald Trump was Putin’s puppet, destined to make America’s foreign policy slavishly obedient to Russia’s whims. There is no greater threat to Our Democracy, TM, than Vladimir the not-so-Great and his army of Twitter bots, 4chan trolls, and grandmas on Facebook. Four years of hysterical doom-saying and fear-mongering does not vanish overnight. Even after Trump left the White House, he is the eternal boogey man, always lurking in the shadows, ready to help Russia subvert Our Democracy, TM. For four years, Progressive Democrats and establishment Democrats alike have warned of the need to Do Something to stop Russia. Arming Ukraine is the perfect opportunity, slacktivism elevated to a new, lethal art form (with the added benefit of $40B of arms sales and military contracts boosting the stock portfolios of a good number of Senators and Congresscritters). How can one expect any of the fear-mongering politicians to publicly stand in the way of the Great Crusade against Russian facism? It is, after all, a Crusade. A Crusade carried out by proxy, through massive defense contracts to provide weapons to the Ukrainians, but a Crusade nonetheless.
Putin is the enemy because he (in theory, at least), fueled the rise of Donald Trump. Donald Trump should never have won the 2016 election. Hillary Clinton, the anointed candidate of Serious People all over the United States, was supposed to breeze to victory over a collection of stale neo-con Republicans whose campaign platforms were light on policy and heavy on platitudes. Instead, the Clown Prince descended onto the adoring masses, and was suddenly catapulted to the most powerful position in the world. Democrats were left in crisis. They needed a way to explain how a deeply Serious candidate, backed by deeply Serious People, could lose a deeply Serious Election to the most unserious candidate to grace American politics since Vermin Supreme. There is, of course, a simple explanation. Trump tapped into a current of anger and dissatisfaction to win enough votes in enough states to win the Electoral College, and Clinton for her part repelled so many voters that they either swung reliably blue states to Trump or just stayed home. But Serious People cannot accept that explanation because it means they made a mistake. Serious People do not make mistakes.
Something sinister must have happened to help Trump defeat Clinton and outmaneuver the Serious People who should be in charge. Enter Putin, lurking ominously in the wings just beyond the stage lighting. Putin does not like Clinton. Obviously Putin must have interfered with the sacred democratic process, misinforming voters, drowning discourse with Twitter bots, and rigging the election in favor of Donald Trump, his Vladivostokian Candidate. This became the default assumption, the only satisfactory explanation as to how Trump could have won the election. And so Putin became Public Enemy No.1 of Our Democracy, TM.
Do AOC, Rep. Khanna, or Rep. Bush know that they are fighting to the last Ukrianian because Hillary Clinton’s ego prevented her from accepting that more than half of America wanted nothing to do with her as President? I doubt it. But the bill passed the House, and unless Sen. Paul holds the line until November, the money and missiles will flow. More will follow. And so we descend deeper into the Labyrinth, the thread long since left behind.