Доналд Фредович Трампов gets his policy advice from the best on this topic, at least on the subjects of fearmongering and divisiveness and Russia’s interests. After all, his main man Paul Manafort learned from the...worst.
Trump has taken the usual GOP binding of “Terrorism + Foreign Policy = Votes” and made it into “Terrorism + Immigration = Votes.”
The GOP’s Foreign policy, now, is just pro-Putin policy haphazardly stated. The GOP owns that, until they can come to their senses. All of the GOP members endorsing or supporting Trump have no foreign policy except a pro-Putin one as of right now. That is their legacy once this fever breaks.
Immigration = Terrorism
Nonwhite = “Other”
Latinos = ISIS
NATO = Optional
EU = The Enemy
Oligarchs = Allies
Estonia = St. Petersburg’s suburbs
Putin = Strong
Putin = Right
Putin = Great
Putin = “...what next, Sir?”
That’s the GOP’s core foreign policy now. That’s all it is, until there’s a true disavowal of the Siberian Candidate Donald Trump by the GOP establishment. Until then, they own it. They will never disavow him.
So congrats, Putin’s Quislings. Congrats, Trump’s allies. Congrats Rep. Paul Ryan, Sen. Marco Rubio, Sen. Mitch McConnell, etc. etc. etc. etc. — virtually the entire GOP. This is you, now. This is your brand and who you’re campaigning for. A crazed and disjointed pro-Putin policy set. You own it. It is you, in the history books.
Keep in mind that the GOP doesn’t have to be FOR Hillary Clinton, here. There a choice available to them to avoid all this: just support NOBODY. They can’t or won’t. So Trump’s policy is theirs, now. Anti-American, anti-NATO, pro-Putin, all of it. They find themselves unable to abstain, and so they own it.
We Democrats need to be happy warriors for democracy and pro-American optimism. The GOP has no substantial willingness to confront Trump along these lines, but American interests must be defended against the “altright” anti-American and pro-Putin nuts. It’s up to us.
When the GOP had a chance to stand up to this, history will show they failed the test.