I agree with you that Russia is our enemy, but just like with China, we don't have to go over the top in our effort to start a war with them. We can't win a war with either Russia or China. Or said another way, we could win, but the world will be devastated in any war with those two. So Trump's stance was to do a reset with Putin and find areas of common ground we could work on, while minimizing Russia's worst impulses. Who else said this? Hillary once was for a reset with Russia, but then like a true woman scorned, turned vehemently anti-Russian when she was outplayed by Putin. Obama was famous for saying we need to look for win-win negotiations based on areas of common ground with other countries, including our enemies. So Trump is not so different from them, except he's not as articulate. So when Trump tries to find a way to work with Russia, all the Obama and Hillary supporters come out hypocritically and engage in McCarthyism. It's baffling. Democrats are quite literally engaging in zero sum behavior, where if Trump is trying to do something, they must automatically oppose him. Obama himself said that he'd only come across two groups of people who engaged with him in zero sum thinking: 1) Putin/Russia and 2) the US GOP. So now the liberals are doing the same thing to Trump. That's not good for this country. The liberals and the conservatives have a lot to gain from working with each other where there is common ground. For example, few of us like these endlessly growing deficits. We all want border security and most of us want a fast, secure path for immigration, including a deal for the Dreamers. Most thinking people want the US to be responsible on climate change. Most of us want the government to advance and respect the rights of women and other minority or underrepresented groups.
The key to understanding Trump is that his bark is worse than his bite. He barks loudly all the time and that's why people don't like him, but his bark creates the conversations we need and his bark gives the US leverage in other foreign policy conversations we need to have like better trade deals for Americans, a reformed more effective NATO, putting NK in check, calling China out on all their trade abuses and their hypocritical double talk on trade. As long as you and other liberals insist on calling Trump evil and categorizing all GOP members as evil and less than human, you make it impossible for our country to come together on areas where we can work together. Moderation in all things is what is required here, even when the person opposite you is as different from you as night is from day.
I know you are a reasonable person with a good heart. In fact, most of your positions come from your good heart. All I'm asking is for you to take a chance in believing that there are people on the other side who don't agree with your positions, but also have good hearts...and they may even be right about some of the positions they take, just as you are right about some of the positions you take. Don't let absolutism become an overriding objective unto itself. Perfect is the enemy of the good...at least until we both die and go to Heaven. |
