Dear America,
The irony in the poisoning of Russian dissident Alexei Navalny is that it is not terribly significant for the people of Russia. Their president of choice, Vladimir Putin, has at the very least countenanced the attempts to murder opposition politicians before, sometimes even after the attempts succeeded. Boris Nemtsov was shot dead on a bridge near the Kremlin in 2015, and the attempt to poison a former Russian spy who defected to England is in everyone's recent memory. The fact that Putin's toadies rid their patron of troublesome enemies with impunity is common knowledge in Russia, and no one seems to care much within the majority that voted for constitutional changes that essentially make Putin president-for-life, the modern iteration of The Czar. But the assassination attempt has profound significance for the American democracy.
It happens that our mountebank of a president doesn't just sell snake oil. He believes in it, and Putin is an example of Trump's misguided admiration for violent autocrats who, as Trump himself aspires to do, sell themselves as the salvation of their countries. Consider whom Trump has praised among international leaders. He detests Angela Merkel, but he thinks Kim Jong-un is a great guy. In fact, he relished the talk of a "bromance" between himself and Kim publicly, though you don't hear Trump talking about the North Korean dictator anymore since he basically flaunted before the world that he had taken Trump for a ride in the international open. And of course there's RT Erdogan of Trukey. He is another of Trump's "very good friends," as Trump himself put it, who has no compunction about imprisoning his opposition and worse. All three autocrats hold elections, but somehow, no one ever beats them, despite what the ways in which they stanch democracy and free speech with tyrannical measures that sometimes have lethal effects for their citizens. Of course, Xi Jinping of China's ranking in the Trump taxonomy of dictators has slipped somewhat since Xi went to Mar-a-Lago and sat at the head table with The Donald and his inner circle. That was all about money, and in the end, Xi kept his and a lot of ours as well. Trump doesn't like getting bet in the making of a deal, and Xi seems to have whipped him pretty well.
But with or without irony...with or without patronizing sarcasm...Trump's adulation of Putin is a threat to everything we value in this country. His refusal to condemn Putin for the Navalny assassination attempt and its sequelae, which include keeping Navalny prisoner in the hospital until the risk that the poison in his body could be detected and identified at the risk of the comatose politicians life, is appalling, if not ominous and unforgivable. It was one thing to gush over a brutal dictator's "strong and powerful"--apparently our "stable genius" of a president doesn't know the word adamant--self--serving denials of election interference that was proven to the entire American intelligence establishment's satisfaction, but now we are talking about political murder and arrogation of power to oppress hundreds of millions of people. If you conflate Trump's adulation of Putin with his exhortation to the attendants of a rally he held in Texas last year to "ask for twelve more years" instead of just four, you gain an understanding of not just our president's lust for power and control, but of the lengths to which he might go to obtain it. We are talking as a nation about the election that is going to take place on November 3 and the fact that Trump is already laying the ground work for discrediting the election process, but no one seems concerned about the fact that no matter what else Trump does, he might just refuse to give up the presidency whether the election is a win, loss or ostensible draw for him.
Until now, I have always thought that such a coup was impossible in this country. Our institutions have always seemed too robust and well defined to be co-opted by a tin horn dictator like the one that Trump would be if he succeeded, either in winning the election, credibly not losing, or not caring and just seizing what he craves: our America. And my confidence in the past hasn't been a function of the lack of people with the intelligence, charisma or poise to pull it off. It has been because I have never suspected that another politician who reached the White House would even contemplate such an endeavor.
My confidence is shaken, America. Maybe yours should be too. For the first time in my life, I fear for our democracy.
Your friend,
Mike
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