A Threat to Democracy

By Chuck Richardson –

Following a stunning and dangerous setback for Ukraine, the election of Donald Trump poses even greater obstacles to any favorable outcome in that war.

Because Ukraine is an ally of the US and adheres to the doctrines of democracy, and Russia represents a diametrically opposite form of governance, the fundamental question for American citizens is, “Whom will we support under a Trump Administration?”

Black and White, Yes or No, Good or Evil

After all the circumstantial variables have been considered, are we going to support nations that agree with and confirm the principles grounded in freedom and liberties afforded by a democracy, or a nation that will capitulate to the whims and threats of a communist dictator?

No matter what optics are displayed, or the amount of saber-rattling demonstrated publicly, the test of substance is the practical impact of America’s decision on Ukraine’s ability to survive, e.g., whether or not our choices and actions subject them to a defeat. It is implausible and dangerous to run with the foxes and bay with the hounds. This nation cannot function under the pretext of a freedom loving people and yet cave in to the demands of a bully.

Propaganda Works

Far too many Americans have been contaminated by the misinformation and propaganda that says that, because Vladimir Putin flatters Donald Trump, he is America’s friend. Nothing could be further from the truth. Putin’s political survival is dependent upon this struggle—make no mistake.

When I was a US Marine in Vietnam, we captured North Vietnamese troops that carried Russian-made weapons. Russia was our enemy then—and still is today. Under Nikita Khrushchev, Leonid Brezhnev, Mikhail Gorbachev, Boris Yeltsin, and now Vladimir Putin, each of them has been sternly committed to Khrushchev’s promise to bury America. How can we be so naive or gullible as to ignore those facts?

How in God’s name can intelligent American citizens entrust their children’s futures to the hands of a communist dictator? To a communist leader who is guided far more by his power-hungry loyalists in the Kremlin than by his transactional association with Donald Trump.

Does Trump, do his MAGA followers, understand that the struggle for geopolitical balance of world power and dominance has nothing whatsoever to do with friendship, but with strategic maneuvers to conquer territories and then the minds of its populations?

The Most Important Question

Regardless of any other policy issues with which you may agree or disagree, none will ever reach the significance nor long-term implications of America’s ability to maintain its position of balance and strength in Eastern Europe or areas around Ukraine. The fate of NATO in Europe in this area is also the fate of American democracy around the world.

Those naive, gullible and misinformed MAGA fanatics have become so immersed in the struggle to ensure one man’s quest for power that they have lost sight of a much larger issue. Their intensity to ensure the political success of Donald Trump has distorted their view of reality—along with ethe much broader view of world circumstances, a world in which democracy rivals and challenges autocracy, the dominance of tyranny, and the aspirations of despots!

It Can Happen Here!

Every citizen has the right to support and vote for whomever he or she chooses. But when that personal privilege is in direct contradiction with a larger interest of national security of all Americans, we are each duty bound to make alternative choices for the greater good. At this moment in America’s history, the guns, tanks, and missiles across the borders of Ukraine may very well be ships, submarines or planes off the coast of North Carolina, Virginia, and Florida. The physical differences may be thousands of miles apart, but tensions, conflicts, and principles that constitute our core values are mutually exclusive and intolerable of each other.

It is only a matter of time and space before the contact frictions grind away until we are only minutes or inches from a face-to-face confrontation. For certain, Vladimir Putin will not cease his invasive ambitions in Ukraine, so who will be next? Poland, Slovenia, Hungary, Serbia, etc.? At what point in this struggle between the freedoms of democracy and the oppression of tyranny will America say, “Enough!”

Do our more enlightened leaders—those who could act as a counterweight to Donald Trump—possess the insight and visions to see beyond today, or will they hesitate, pause, or ponder in confusion until the borders of the mountain on the horizon of Ukraine become the seascapes off Cape Hatteras, Virginia Beach, or Miami?

Chuck Richardson is a former city councilman in Richmond, VA., a decorated Vietnam Veteran of the US Marine Corps, and author of an autobiography, Cease Fire! Cease Fire! – Councilman Chuck, A Hero(in) Addiction.

TriceEdneyWire.com