Putin’s Goals and Republicans’s Goals

In a trenchant Op-Ed that appeared in yesterday’s online Washington Post, retired general, Rhodes Scholar, and former NATO commander Wesley Clark sets forth sane and sensible steps the U.S. should take to deter Putin in his agenda for restoring Russia to its position prior to the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Conquering or installing a puppet government in Ukraine is Putin’s immediate goal.

The Republican Party, with the help of two obdurate Democratic senators, has gained the power to block President Biden’s legislative initiatives, including voting rights and election integrity protection initiatives, and through their promotion or tolerance of damaging misinformation, their complicity with Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election, their opposition to investigation of the January 6th, 2021, insurrection and their refusal to censure or restrain the conspicuous militant nihilists in their ranks in Congress, and in having succeeded in installing a solid majority of like-minded justices on the Supreme Court, they have made substantial progress toward achieving their goal of making Biden fail and, coupled with their radically anti-democratic legislative initiatives in states they control, maximizing their chances of gaining control of Congress in the November elections and the presidency in January 2025. They have shown no concern that, in their anti-democratic methods of weakening Biden, they have significantly weakened the country, much, we can be sure, to Putin’s satisfaction