Trump's connection to Putin is deeper than you previously thought

                                             photo credit: The Atlantic

We know (you do know don't you) that Trump acts like he's joined at the hip with the Russia dictator. From The Atlantic (How the Kremlin Shapes the Trump-Putin Relationship),

Special Counsel Robert Mueller concluded that a criminal conspiracy between Trump’s campaign and Russia did not occur in 2016, according to a memo written by Attorney General William Barr late last month. But fundamental questions remain: Why do so many of Trump’s positions bewilderingly align with Putin’s, including chastising U.S. spies, dismissing NATO as “obsolete,” and questioning the value of the European Union? What explains Trump’s affinity [affection] for Putin, and the extensive secrecy that has shrouded their interactions since 2017? Why has the White House made it so easy for the Kremlin to shape the narrative around Trump and Putin’s encounters, often to Moscow’s advantage?

It may take Congressional investigations as follow up to the Mueller Report to flesh out the particulars. But it's grossly apparent that, as Atlanta Journal Constitution political cartoonist Mike Luckovich recently portrayed,

By the way, you may have heard that Trump has kept a copy of Hitler's Mein Kampf by his bedside. This story in Business Insider quotes Trump about the book and where he got it. Notably, the book was

Hitler was one of history's most prolific orators, building a genocidal Nazi regime with speeches that bewitched audiences.

"He learned how to become a charismatic speaker, and people, for whatever reason, became enamored with him," Professor Bruce Loebs, who has taught a class called the Rhetoric of Hitler and Churchill for the past 46 years at Idaho State University, told Business Insider earlier this year.

In another Business Insider story (also from 2015), Amanda Macias says of Hitler,

In more than 5,000 persuasive speeches, Nazi leader Adolf Hitler bewitched his audiences and promised them that his empire would reign for a thousand years.

That explains how Trump has developed a cult following that he has succeeded in bewitching. But it doesn't account for Putin's fascination with Trump.

I digress.

Perhaps all I have is circumstantial evidence, but I'll share a bit of it with you briefly anyway. In September 2015, the Hudson Institute published a story about Putin's Philosopher.

In the last days of April, Russian television aired a 150-minute documentary [apparently entirely in Russian without subtitles or translation] about Vladimir Putin’s decade and a half as the leader of Russia. Shown around the anniversary of his first inauguration (May 7, 2000), the movie offered a blunt message: in the 15 years of Putin’s rule, he had saved Russia from the forces of destruction, both internal—Chechnya and the oligarchs—and external—insidious Western influence. He, the movie repeatedly reinforced, is the only thing holding the country together.

According to the film, moreover, Putin is not just a political savior: his leadership has also been important for the spiritual revival of Russia and its people. Fully six minutes of the movie were dedicated to a recounting of his work to repatriate the remains of White Russian [not a cocktail and not about the color of his skin] philosopher Ivan Ilyin.

“Politics is the art of identifying and neutralizing the enemy.”

—Ivan Ilyin, 1948

A number of Ilyin's works (including those written after the German defeat in 1945) advocated fascism.[9] Ilyin saw Hitler as a defender of civilization from Bolshevism and approved the way Hitler had, in his view, derived his antisemitism from the ideology of the Russian Whites. [see also The Road to Unfreedom, By Timothy Snyder, p 20]

From Wikipedia's article on Fascism,

Fascism (/ˈfæʃɪzəm/) is a form of radical, right-wing, authoritarian ultranationalism, characterized by dictatorial power, forcible suppression of opposition, and strong regimentation of society and of the economy, which came to prominence in early 20th-century Europe. The first fascist movements emerged in Italy during World War I before it spread to other European countries. Opposed to liberalism, Marxism, and anarchism, fascism is placed on the far-right within the traditional left–right spectrum.

Does any of that paragraph on Fascism sound at all like what Trump has been doing to our country since he first took office?

Again, this is Vladimir Putin's underlying philosophy. By the way, it has enabled him to turn Russia into a massive kleptocracy.

My synthesis of all of this is that the primary purpose of Trump's presidency thus far has been to weaken (destroy) American institutions, including but NOT limited to the federal government.

Yale historian Timothy Snyder also explains in The Road to Unfreedom (Page 27),

A fascist presents institutions and laws as the corrupt barriers between leader and folk that must be circumvented or destroyed.

The most blatant indications by Trump of his intent to weaken American institutions has been installing cabinet ministers over federal agencies who have taken it upon themselves to demolish agency rules designed to protect everyday Americans from the plunder we face at the hands of corporate exploitation.

I could go on and on. The frequent campaign rallies to exploit and "rouse the rabble"; labeling ultranationalists (neo-Nazis), "very fine people"; daring his followers to commit violent acts against anyone who disagrees with/opposes Trump; demonizing immigrants. Do you need more evidence that Trump leans heavily Fascist?

You now know where Putin gets his Fascist/Authoritarian ideology and you know that's what Trump is all about.

Can there be any alternative for saving our democratic republic than to impeach Trump? I don't think so. However, Blogger Teri Kanefield suggests being thoughtful (not just Congress) about advocating for it.

We do NOT know exactly how it will play out. Trump has sown a lot of seeds of violence over the last four years (starting when he first held campaign rallies before the 2016 election).

We do NOT know what will happen if Congress declines to impeach, just as we don't know what will happen throughout the country if they do impeach. The one thing we know with the most confidence is that the president deserves to be thrown out of office.

We do know that Trump himself declared that "I'm FUCKED." Two years ago, that is. But now he's putting on his best blustery face to declare that he's not afraid of impeachment. Conventional wisdom would suggest he is scared.

We do not know at what point Trump might resign in lieu of impeachment. Nor do we know whether VP Pence would offer him a blanket pardon which might make it easier to decide to resign.

We do not know whether legal and other Constitutional institutions have been sufficiently degraded to the extent he might try to declare himself permanent dictator. Those, seemingly outrageous options could become possible.

So advocate for impeachment (I will) because that is the Constitutional remedy for the crises we currently face. But be prepared for unexpected outcomes.