When Trump trumps Patriotism

Ariel Hill-Davis is a Republican from Pennsylvania who currently resides in Washington D.C. Ariel serves as Vice President of Industry and Regulatory Affairs for a trade association, working on legislative and regulatory issues that impact the mining industry.

By now this photograph of two Donald Trump supporters at a rally in Ohio has made the rounds on the internet.

The image is jarring for many reasons, the most obvious of which is the incongruity between the “Make America Great Again” hat and the “I’d Rather Be Russian Than Democrat” t-shirt. These men are old enough to know better. They grew up fighting against communism and recognized Russia as an existential threat to America. But, maybe one of these gentlemen could explain to us how the nationalistic sentiment of MAGA does not now extend to recognizing the threat Russia poses to our traditional American values.

As we await that explanation it is worth noting that the photo also reveals three things much more disturbing than the cognitive dissonance displayed in the Trump rally attire.

1) Russia has succeeded in its goal to undermine our public discourse and disrupt our democratic processes.

2) Support for the president has fully developed into a cult of personality focused on perpetuating the Trump mythology.

3) Republican Party identity has been hijacked by the Trump personality cult and needs to be returned to the traditional platform before it is too late.

Let’s look at them each in turn.

First, Russia has succeeded in its goal to undermine our public discourse and disrupt our democratic processes. During the 2012 Presidential debates, Republican candidate Mitt Romney labeled Russia as the most significant geopolitical threat to the United States. It was a defining moment of the debates as President Obama ridiculed Romney for espousing stale foreign policy. Funny how prescient Romney’s statement seems now as more and more information is revealed about Russia’s multipronged and continuous attacks on our democratic processes and civic discourse.

And now consider how far we have fallen. Despite total agreement amongst the US intelligence community that Russia executed a multifaceted attack on our 2016 elections the percentage of Republicans with favorable views of Russia is steadily increasing. A recent Gallup poll shows that 40 percent of Republicans now view Russia as an ally or a friend of the country. That number is up from 22 percent in 2014, which is a troubling trend, especially when compared with the corresponding drop in positive Democratic sentiment for Russia from 28 percent in 2014 to 25 percent today.

I’ve heard the argument that being friends with Russia is better than being enemies and therefore Trump is improving our global standing. That is a misunderstanding of Russia’s goals. Russia and Vladimir Putin do not want to be friends with the United States. Because they cannot compete economically or militarily with the United States (at this point), the decision was made to pour energy into disrupting our democratic processes, institutions, and public discourse.

Even if Robert Mueller’s investigation does not prove direct collusion between Trump’s campaign and Russia, there is no denying that Russia actively worked to help get Donald Trump elected for their own purposes. The fact that Russia interfered in our democratic process with the expressed goal of assisting Donald Trump and hurting Hillary Clinton should not result in higher “approval” ratings, and yet it has, amongst Republicans.

What is the reason for these favorable views of Russia? Support for the president has fully developed into a cult of personality focused on perpetuating the Trump mythology.

In this mythology of the 2016 election, Trump won the popular vote, if you subtract the ballots resulting from voter fraud, and he crushed all of his opponents because he is an excellent strategist who understood both the working American and the Electoral College better than the rest of the field. The reality, of course, is that he lost the popular vote by over 3 million votes and the election was decided by 80,000 votes in swing states. To admit that Russian meddling could have moved the needle at all is to admit that Donald Trump didn’t — and perhaps couldn’t — win the Presidency without assistance from a foreign government hostile to democracy.

But Donald Trump has spent his life building a cult of personality that hinges on his superiority to everyone and everything. And his supporters have famously bought hook, line, and sinker into this narrative and the question is: At what point will the inconsistency between their espoused beliefs and President Trump’s actions break the spell? Judging by these shirts, I’m not sure there will be a breaking point for many who still support the president. These individuals who consider themselves true patriots would rather claim allegiance to a known enemy of our country than fellow Americans who happen to be registered with the Democratic Party.

Finally, this image reveals that Republican party identity has been hijacked by the Trump personality cult and needs to be returned to the traditional platform before it is too late. As Republicans, we need to find a way to divorce our party affiliation from the current president rather than continuing to twist ourselves into philosophical knots to preserve his self-aggrandizing mythology. It shouldn’t be more comfortable to espouse Pro-Russia statements and propaganda than to admit the outcome of the 2016 election could have been impacted by Russian meddling, and that the interference is a problem.

Donald Trump won the election. Portions of our society who felt ignored and silenced saw their champion triumphant. It would be painful to feel that victory tainted by the influence of a country that perhaps views Donald Trump as an easier leader to manipulate than Hillary Clinton. But is the pain of that recognition worth betraying the democratic values of the United States? Is it worth turning our backs on the Republican party and what it has traditionally stood for in both foreign and domestic policy?

Ours is the party of Lincoln, who fought to save the Union; of Ronald Reagan, who championed freedom and helped bring about the collapse of the Soviet Union; of the “compassionate conservatism” of George W. Bush; and of recent presidential nominees we could be proud of: John McCain and Mitt Romney. And there are dozens of candidates running all across the country willing to recognize that more connects us than separates us. They should be the new standard bearers of our party.

Indeed our hopes, dreams, and aspirations for the United States are more similar than what Russia wants for us. Our fellow Americans are not the enemy, Russia is. We need to remember, our country is greater than any singular president and any party. It is time to stop participating in a patently false narrative just to save Donald Trump’s feelings and perpetuate his personal mythos.

Sadly, this image shows that Russia’s initial attempts to undermine our public discourse and disrupt our democratic processes have met success with certain segments of our population who have embraced the cult of personality centered on President Trump. We can and must reverse that trend and restore the Republican party to its traditional place in our civil discourse.

Related posts:

As a I get closer to 40 years old as a Black man in America, I often forget that the person I am is based on the original version of myself, let’s call it version 1.0. This original version dealt…

Ang NEAR Ecosystem ay nasasabik na salubungin ang Octopus Network sa NEAR Protocol. Bilang isang desentralisadong network ng appchain, ang Octopus Network ay pinasinayaan ang isang bagong hangganan…

This is a landmark milestone for Injective and starting today anyone can delegate to top-tier validators in order to join the staking competition and earn rewards. This is also the first time that…