What the Left Still Doesn’t Get About Trump’s Zaddy, Putin

I am going to try to bridge the gap of understanding between the left and the right regarding Trump and Putin. I understand that democrats are still reeling two years after Trump came into power. I specifically remember telling my Republican mother that there was no way that he would get into office. Had I been paying attention to the comment section of Yahoo or Twitter or anything beyond MSM, then I would have seen the writing on the wall.

I often read the comments before the article now. Priceless gems waiting there. Salacious comments. Vitriolic beliefs. It’s the feeding pool of the disenfranchised. Those voters were riled up. They showed up. They were mad as hell and weren’t going to take it anymore. They showed all the liberals. But you know who these, behind the screens’ folks admire? Putin.

Think that’s insane? Or that they don’t love their country? Right.

Remember this little gem between Romney and Obama? “The 1980s are now calling to ask for their foreign policy back because the Cold War’s been over for 20 years.”
–President Obama, during the third presidential debate, Oct. 22, 2012
The problem remains that while we did not approve of the former Soviet Union, we were not the buddies to show up and help manage the chaos.
What did the United States do after Russia gained all this independence?

Nothing. We are not the “in for a penny in for a pound” country. We are the “help you win whatever skirmish, and then we are outski” country. It is a follow through issue. Of course our country knows not to leave a power vacuum when we “help”. Unfortunately, our ordinary taxpayers become fatigued with money pouring into wars or political upheavals off the backs of the working class.

Putin’s very success rests on the order brought from the chaos that the West had every opportunity to avert. The United States has an entire population who were not even alive when the world changed so abruptly and, ostensibly, for the better. The Russian children of the nineties and the United States’ children of the nineties have two different realities. While United States’ young people may have suffered through the Great Recession of the last decade, they in no way mirror their Russian counterparts.

The 1990s may have brought high unemployment in the United States, but our difficulties were not remotely akin to the devastation in unstable independent Russia. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2016/12/putin-generation-russia-soviet-union/

There is a reason that dictators and authoritarian governments exist.

Everyone wants a Zaddy

Let’s be honest. Putin stepped in and filled the spot. Much like Trump’s tweets, Putin created the optics of a man’s man. Pictures of him on horseback. Pictures of him hunting. Carefully, chosen visuals of a man restoring order with swagger.

Other people admire Putin. Much the same as people here who dress up like Darth Vader. You know he is bad news’ bears, but Zaddy Putin is living the dream. It’s been never in most of our young people’s lives or experiences that they were taught to fear the Russians. Meanwhile, those of us who grew up in the seventies and eighties are very familiar with their reputation. Heck, I remember my mom making me learn Bible verses to keep in my heart in case the Russians invaded us.

Our young people have no such recollection of the Russians. There is no fear there. They have grown up with a Hollywood version of Russia. For Heaven’s sake, Steven Seagal is a Russian citizen. Russia’s reputation for dictators, communism, or any of the negative connotations once applied to the region have been non-existent for over twenty years.

Putin is no different than Dark Vader. His swagger and take no prisoners’ approach is a Hollywood story.

Trump’s apparent bromance with Putin is reasonable with a Hollywood filter. Putin is the polished, silver-tongued antagonist. He and Trump thrive on a pretty version of control. Their stories have been parlayed into a film script where taking control is a good thing. Being boss is expected.

While Putin’s eyes belie his plans of world domination in a Pinky and the Brain throwback, Trump tweets hearken to a Wild West mentality. Tweets, merely by their pithy parameters, create a stream of Hollywood one-liners. Trump gets it. He sets the agenda daily, and the media follow like puppies.

Of course, Putin and Trump admire one another. They like to be in control. After Obama’s laissez faire terms, the disenfranchised were easy to convince that SOMEONE had the answers because they had been armchair quarterbacks to a President who wanted everyone to just get along.

But Putin is not the bad guy in a film. And Trump is not the moron the media has tried to paint him.

The problem we have here—“Is a failure to communicate”-we spent years of radio silence not teaching our young people about the world as it was. Not only have we left an entire generation ignorant of our own history, but we have also marginalized a group of hardworking men and women who support a man they perceive to be a strong leader. They like his tweets. They admire his strength and his machismo. After watching eight years of chill Zaddy Obama, they were ready for Dirty Harry Zaddy.

Marginalizing the people who voted for Trump, calling them deplorables, acting as if their thoughts and beliefs don’t matter, only serves to bolster Trump’s cry of fake news. While people may miss the crunchy-granola, hippie-dippie, “it’s all good,” President, the rush to categorize Trump supporters as morons serves to strengthen and justify their commitment to a hardline President. Think Harvard scholar versus New York real estate and reality TV star.

Obama is peaceful and you could invite him to any gathering and know he would not act the fool. Trump fires off his tweets and succeeds in insulting one or more people on a daily basis. Trump is your old off-the-chain uncle who says the most outlandish things at Thanksgiving dinner—has half the table furious and the other half laughing behind their napkins

The United States’ voters put both types of President in office. They did not, however, put Hillary into office. Obama won because he connected with a majority of the population. Trump won because he physically went to the “deplorables” and gave voice to their frustration. He outplayed the players. Hillary can claim she won the popular vote, but who cares? She did not win the game. The same voters who voted for Trump like Putin because he’s Zaddy. They are voters who tell it like it is. They expect their president to be the same way.

I freely state to anyone who will listen that I did not vote for Donald Trump. I don't like his inflammatory tweets. I believe he enjoys meeting with controversial leaders like Putin. Although the Russian leader is an enigma and Putin seems to have brought back hardline Russia, our President revels in kicking up the dirt. But I truly think that Trump knows the dangers of Putin. Unfortunately, Trump jangles our nerves with his need to be tied to the mast, so he can see and hear the sirens' song up close and personal.

Whatever the case, the left has to understand our country's fascination with Putin. He is intriguing. Our country should engage in dialogue with Russia. The liberal agenda can't have it both ways. Telling people for thirty years that Russia is no worry for us will take time to teach new voters about the insidious Russia of our past.

Still, is anyone surprised that Trump simply has to poke the bear?