WATCHING THE MID-TERM ELECTION

OCTOBER 26, 2022 – No person on earth is watching November 8 more closely than a man from afar. He’s a heartless, soulless, evil, violent, megalomaniac, hellbent on reducing the largest nation in Europe to a pile of rubble and a land scorched with human misery. By moral and ethical standards of civilized society, his actions are inhumane, inexcusable, and irredeemable. His name: Putin the Terrible, whose butchery many Americans would naively ignore or excuse.

Beyond the direct destruction wreaked by his command are the manifold global ramifications of his grand misanthropy. If he is allowed any quarter, the world will soon regret the price. Yet, even if he and his enablers were defanged tomorrow, the final tab for his murderous rage would still be staggering.

Now that Putin’s self-aggrandizement has turned to self-preservation, he’ll resort to every conceivable weapon at his disposal.  “Weapon” means more than “nuclear” and “dirty bomb.” Far more powerful weapons of mass destruction are Russian gas, disinformation, and  propaganda.

Playing directly into the tyrant’s hands are Europeans, who years ago tied their wagons to Russian gas, and fickle Americans, whose political aspirants bend with the wind rather than lead headlong into it. If our former president was a narcissistic nit-wit, Russia’s current president is a psychopathic plotter who knows a mark when he sees one. In Orange Man, Putin saw an accessory. In the Orange Man’s Red Meat base, the Russian sees millions of allies; tools for splitting NATO’s Biden-led unity.

Then out of the (progressive) Blue, the Russian butcher was served a windfall of additional hope.

As November 8 approaches, we need to understand fully what’s at stake in Putin’s aggression—starting with the price of gasoline, and moving on to the plight of millions of displaced Ukrainians, the astronomical cost of rebuilding Ukraine, and the dependence of tens of millions people on grain from Ukraine. We need to understand that the cost of ensuring Putin’s defeat will be a fraction of the price of acquiescing in his success, however marginalized from his original objectives. But who among the candidates for House or Senate is a leader on this issue? Where is the matter highlighted in debates, candidate websites, campaign brochures or media spots? And who among us voters demands that the candidates signal to Putin loud and clear, ‘Not on your life will you divide or divert us!’”?

Putin is counting on our self-absorption; our isolationism, our rejection of sacrifice, and our obsession with immediate gratification. If the Democrats retain control of Congress, Putin will lose—provided Biden can hold NATO together and compel House progressives to stay in line. If the Republicans win either House or Senate, the Monster of Moscow will celebrate his salvation.

Perhaps we’ll never know the extent to which Putin has meddled in our elections and leveraged the ignorance and idiocy of our Naked Emperor.  But we can be certain that when our citizens and unschooled “leaders” express doubts about standing up to evil, evil will find a way to prevail. And evil never prevails without imposing a heavy cost on enablers, apologists, and vanquished alike.

As with so very many issues, we face a familiar choice in dealing with Putin: pay attention and pay today’s price or ignore and confront an unaffordable cost tomorrow.

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© 2022 by Eric Nilsson