The Guardian ran an OpEd by Bernie on Friday, America Must Not Surrender Its Democratic Values, right around the time traitorous worm JD Vance and his family showed up in Vermont for a ski holiday. He was greeted by demonstrators holding up anti-regime, pro-Ukraine signs, one of which said “Vance is a traitor; go ski in Russia.”
“For 250 years,” wrote Bernie, “the United States has held itself up as a symbol of democracy— an example of freedom and self-governance to which the rest of the world could aspire. People have long looked to our declaration of independence and constitution as blueprints for how to guarantee those human rights and freedoms. Tragically, all of that is changing. As Donald Trump moves this country towards authoritarianism, he is aligning himself with dictators and despots who share his disdain for democracy and the rule of law. This week, in a radical departure from longstanding US policy, the Trump administration voted against a United Nations resolution which clearly stated that Russia began the horrific war with Ukraine. That resolution also called on Russia to withdraw its forces from occupied Ukraine, in line with international law. The resolution was brought forward by our closest allies, including the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan and dozens more democratic nations. And 93 countries voted ‘yes.’ Rather than side with our longstanding allies to preserve democracy and uphold international law, the president voted with authoritarian countries such as Russia, North Korea, Iran and Belarus to oppose the resolution. Many of the other opponents of that resolution are undemocratic nations propped up by Russian military aid. Let’s be clear: this was not just another UN vote. This was the president of the United States turning his back on 250 years of our history and openly aligning himself with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin. This was the president of the United States undermining the independence of Ukraine.”
Bernie urged his readers to “not forget who Putin is. He is the man who crushed Russia’s movement towards democracy after the end of the cold war. He steals elections, murders political dissidents and crushes freedom of the press. He has maintained control in Russia by offering the oligarchs there a simple deal: if you give me absolute power, I will let you steal as much as you want from the Russian people. He sparked the bloodiest war in Europe since the second world war. It has been three years since Russia’s brutal, unprovoked, full-scale invasion of Ukraine. More than 1 million people have been killed or injured because of Putin’s aggression. Every single day, Russia rains down hundreds of missiles and drones on Ukrainian cities. Putin’s forces have massacred civilians and kidnapped thousands of Ukrainian children, bringing them back to Russian ‘re-education’ camps. These atrocities led the international criminal court to issue an arrest warrant for Putin in 2023 as a war criminal.”
Not only is Trump aligning himself with Putin’s Russia, he is prepared to extort Ukraine for its natural resources. While a proud nation desperately fights for its life, Trump is focused on helping his billionaire friends make a fortune excavating rare earths and other minerals.
But Trump’s turn toward authoritarianism and rejection of international law goes well beyond Ukraine.
The president sees the world’s dictators as his friends, our democratic allies as his enemies and the use of military force as the way to achieve his goals. Disgracefully, he wants to push 2.2 million Palestinians out of their homeland in order to build a billionaire’s playground in Gaza. He talks openly about annexing Greenland from Denmark. He says the United States should take back the Panama canal. And he ruptures our friendship with our Canadian neighbors by telling them they should become the 51st state in the union.
Alongside his fellow oligarchs in Russia, Saudi Arabia and around the globe, Trump wants a world ruled by authoritarians in which might makes right, and where democracy and moral values cease to exist.
Just over a century ago, a handful of monarchs, emperors and tsars ruled most of the world. Sitting in extreme opulence, they claimed that absolute power was their “divine right.” But ordinary people disagreed.
Slowly and painfully, in countries throughout the world, they clawed their way toward democracy and rejected colonialism.
At our best, the US has played a key role in the movement toward freedom. From Gettysburg to Normandy, millions of Americans have fought— and many have died— to defend democracy, often alongside brave men and women from other nations.
This is a turning point— a moment of enormous consequence in world history. Do we go forward toward a more democratic, just and humane world? Or do we retreat back into oligarchy, authoritarianism, colonialism and the rejection of international law?
As Americans, we cannot stay quiet as Trump abandons centuries of our commitment to democracy. Together, we must fight for our long-held values and work with people around the world who share them.
Former Bernie ally, psychopath Tulsi Gabbard, who the Senate recently confirmed to be Director of National Intelligence— every Democrat voting no and every Republican except Mitch McConnell voting yes-- reacted to Trump’s disgraceful tête-à-tête with Zelensky with this tweet:
Senator Chris Murphy reacted more like Bernie than like Tulsi. Before Zelenskyy was ambushed by Señor Trumpanzyy and Vance, he met with various senators of both parties, including Murphy. “In our meeting,” wrote Murphy, “he confirmed that the Ukrainian people will not support a fake peace agreement where Putin gets everything he wants and there are no security arrangements for Ukraine.” Of the Oval Office meeting, Murphy wrote “It was a planned ambush designed to humiliate President Zelensky in order to benefit Vladimir Putin… [T]his was an embarrassment and an abomination for America. Trump has become a lapdog for a brutal dictator in Moscow, and America's global power is hemorrhaging as America sides with dictators over democracy. What an embarrassment.”
It's got to be hard for Americans to understand how the White House has just become an outlet for Kremlin propaganda— why the health of Vladimir Putin matters more than the health of democracies.
It was absolutely extraordinary to watch the planned embarrassment of an ally just because it's good for Russia.
Nothing about what happened today is good for America.
It makes us look like a laughing stock. It makes us look like we do not care about democracy.
Donald Trump is giving a green light for Russia and China to invade their neighbors and to unveil a new era of global instability. This is terrible for the American economy and terrible for American workers.
President Zelensky came here to try to find some common ground, despite the fact that Donald Trump calls him a dictator.
Zelensky came seeking support despite the fact that you can't work for the Trump Administration right now unless you pretend that the war in Ukraine was Ukraine's fault. It’s all utter bullshit.
But Zelensky still came here because he cares about his people and about democracy.
What he got was something that no world leader, especially a vital ally like Ukraine, deserves.
I am deeply embarrassed for our country today. It is a terrible day for America's reputation in the world.
This was the reaction from Alaska Republican Lisa Murkowski, who voted to confirm Tulsi. I wonder if she’s sorry yet.
Yesterday, David Remnick (Trump’s Disgrace) wrote that “Each day is its own fresh hell, bringing ever more outrageous news from an autocrat who revels in his contempt for the government he leads, for the foreign allies who deserve our support, and for the Constitution he is sworn to uphold.”He went on to eloquently contrast Trump with FDR— the greatest of American presidents compared to the worst.
“Is this,” he asked, “really what Trump’s supporters voted for? How does the decimation of American values, institutions, and commitments bring down the price of eggs? … There is no guarantee that Trump’s perverse momentum will slow, or be derailed, of its own accord. He has the unwavering support of his MAGA base, the cowed compliance of his congressional caucus, and the backing of multibillionaires such as Jeff Bezos, who would rather diminish the vitality of his newspaper than risk the dinner invitations of the sovereign. And yet the current torrent, fuelled by years of planning in right-wing circles and by Trump’s demagogic energies, is hardly unstoppable… Roosevelt, at the start of his Inaugural Address, said that there was no need ‘to shrink from honestly facing conditions in our country today.’ In our time, the crisis resides in the Oval Office. Whether there is a mandate for what is being practiced there will be made clear in the months to come–– in Congress, in the courts, in the press, in the streets, and, eventually, at the ballot box. Fear itself was the singular enemy in Roosevelt’s time. It remains so today.”
My (still living) parents were born early in FDR's presidency. The 2 worst presidencies in their lifetimes (by a wide margin) have occurred since they were over 65. Trump 1.0 and 2.0 (and the active assistance of the Dems) have obscured how truly horrible the W/Cheney years were. One of the more absurd campaign memes in our lifetimes was the Dem 2024 meme that "a coalition from Bernie Sanders to Dick Cheney" would save us from Trump 2.0.
As to what to do now, Dems have an opportunity on Tuesday night to highlight the horrors of Trump 2.0. A full-scale boycott of the upcoming charade is apparently not in the cards. AT MINIMUM, there should be something like every D…