Tags
2016 American Elections, amplification of political division, authoritarianism, Clinton, commentary, political Brown, political Red-Green, Putin's timing, Trump
The medieval way of doing business — commercial or political — may have relied on a kind of personality that we today call “authoritarian” or “autocratic” and possessed of some predictable characteristics especially when found demonstrably bullying and strutting. By contrast, the America mid-west ethic favors hard work, humility, and a quiet if firm demeanor.
Putin’s lines of power — Putin-Assad-Khamenei — and of influence — Putin-Orban, Putin-Erdogan – leverage the affinity between authoritarian leaders, who, not so surprisingly, aggrandize themselves at great cost to the finances and freedoms of their constituents.
From Washington’s standpoint, both Hillary Clinton and Donald J. Trump present “strong personalities”, but Trump’s earlier association with Paul Manafort, a major political consultant to the world’s dictators, and Sergei Millian, a Russian businessman — http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/russia-trump-political-conflict-zone/story?id=42263092 (“Trump, Millian” is also an easy look-up online) — signals the idea that a kind of authority may present to the public, in old socialist language, “the masses”, a public reality that masks off personal interests.
Not too long ago, the Russian state could have been described as “post-Soviet” and on its way toward democracy as known in the open societies of the west. Putin’s more evident narrative starts out that way, and in fact with the endorsement of a powerful Russian billionaire — Berezovsky. The west was back then quick to forgive and get in, but adjustments by Putin over time — this December will mark the 25th anniversary since the dissolving of the Soviet Union — have transformed the state into a familiar authoritarian system, this time ultra-nationalist and imperial in its actions and intents. Trump, hardly alone in this, may have been inveigled in the earlier “glasnost” state of affairs — the same in which the “Uranium One” deal developed — but even so soon after so much east-west cooperation, today is very different as regards Moscow’s resurgent anti-western stance and Trump’s entanglements.
The piece looks a little off-hand as to how Americans prefer themselves as personalities and, by extension, what may have been preferred in those most divisive and raucous of election seasons. If there had been a Harry Truman in the mix (or if ever there was) — someone who shouldered responsibility quietly and returned to a modest life — he would have been steamrolled and buried beneath the machinery of Big Politics (say, whatever happened to Rubio?).
An Aside on the Coming Election
Syndicate Red Brown Green has made a loud appearance in this election round, and BackChannels interprets the color code this way:
Brown – New Nationalists – Trump – Representative Portion of Loud Republican Moral Authoritarianism
Red–Green – Old Comrades and Neo-Islamists – Clinton’s Party and Its Portion of the Fascists on the Far Left
The extreme divisions in America’s body politic serves Moscow, and BackChannels wonders to what extent over time (decades) and today KGB-style FSB “Active Measures” (Wikipedia) have contributed to the nation’s very own mud fest of an election season. As regards that suspicion, let it include the cultivation of the Far Left on campus and in the think-tanks across decades, as the Wikipedia page referenced asserts the following: “According to Stanislav Lunev, GRU alone spent more than $1 billion for the peace movements against Vietnam War, which was a “hugely successful campaign and well worth the cost”.[3] Lunev claimed that “the GRU and the KGB helped to fund just about every antiwar movement and organization in America and abroad”.[3]”
–33–
BackChannels 
Pingback: FTAC -America’s Election and Putin’s Opera – ‘Phantoms of the Soviet’ | BackChannels
Everything is true, brilliant analysis. But what are your suggestions by the situation?
LikeLike
“Unless you are parked in San Diego Bay, you are at war every time you step on this boat. Do you understand that?”
The Soviet / post-Soviet arc of power that may be symbolized as “Putin-Assad-Khamenei” or “Moscow-Damascus-Tehran” has been addressed in quite a few ways by Washington and its allies, and not without effect but perhaps not always with fanfare. Have sanctions worked? Not obviously, especially if one sets the bar at seeing some immediate turnaround to “right behavior”, but that doesn’t mean the same haven’t “sent a message”.
“North American Energy Independence” — Canada is America’s chief oil supplier; Mexico is next in line: not really . . . or not so dramatically . . . but than have a look at Russia’s economy and the toll taken by those reductions plus capital flight and reduced foreign business investment associated with the state’s internal criminality.
In “Information Warfare”, and this with a look backward at Soviet “Active Measures” —
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_measures —
I’ve no idea how well Radio Free Liberty is doing these days, but we may be behind the ball on that dimension, for when the Soviet dissolved, so it has been my understanding, so too went funding for Russian Studies departments and other fixtures contributing ideas and talent to fighting the Cold War.
How bad are conditions?
Have a look at Syria.
Catch up with Ukraine’s Stop Fake” web site.
Putin has given great energy to sustaining medieval political absolutism in the world and in his own defense and that of others like himself, i.e., other inherently authoritarian leaders. Given Hezbollah’s missile stores and so many displays of aggression and barbarism and complete absence of humanity (in Syria especially), the situation does not look so good, but Moscow, Damascus, and Tehran may be boxed in despite the apparent generosity and trust shown each over time.
With both Syria and Crimea, Putin’s post-Soviet feudal revanche may have crossed lines from which our diplomacy must diverge, but, hey, I don’t know — I’m just watching the world on the Wild Web and munching popcorn (actually, sipping coffee) with everyone else.
LikeLike