Alternate interpretation, Russia has been giving Trump money for a long time, ergo Trump supports Russia and everyone around him who has seen his rise as an opportunity to gain power goes along with it, even if 18 months ago they were on the record repeatedly making seemingly heartfelt statements exactly to the contrary. Whatever other explanations they give are rationalizations after the fact.
I remember when I was much younger many evangelical Christians absolutely losing their mind over the Lewinsky scandal, and both in public and private going on and on for years about what a disgrace it was that a man who would break his marriage vows was leading the country and that God was going to punish the nation for it, using the most hyperbolic language you can imagine. Now turns out they are supporting this guy for whom marriage is a joke and I guess infidelity is no longer a big deal, having the highest support of any demographic. Literally every single individual I knew who spoke out about this during the 90s is now a MAGA.
There are no principles at play at all, only a lust for power, a desire to enrich themselves, and most of all unquenchable egos that they now, with most of these people nearing the ends of their lives and having little else to lose, are willing to make enormous sacrifices to stoke.
The current administration aren't really isolationists. Hell, they've threatened buying/invading Greenland and the Panama Canal.
They're opportunists, protectionists, and authoritarians. I mean, Trump himself has praised Xi for ruling with an iron fist, and extending tenure 'for life', remarking he'd like to do the same. Musk would pretend to support democratic views if they were the dominant view of the current administration, or somehow thought it would benefit him. But like I said, they're opportunists - people who exploit current circumstances to gain immediate advantage rather than being guided by consistent principles or plans. They're not really isolationists...
> Neoconservatives were hawkish members of the old Anti-USSR Left who were disillusioned by the Post Vietnam Democratic Party and travelled away from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party.
This is the same talking point parroted by another prominent right-wing commentator here, that implies that some neocons were... so far right that they were actually left?
> Supported by former Democratic intellectuals like Glenn Greenwald.
Glenn Greenwald is not and has never been a Democrat or member of the party or anything resembling that.
Elon Musk was a "Democrat" in the sense that as long as Democrat administrations handed his businesses grants and funding and tax breaks, he didn't shit-talk them. When he saw there was an opportunity to milk these things from Republican administrations, all of a sudden he became "Republican".
It's really tiring seeing the HN enlightened conservatives talking as if there is a coherent policy here. Withdrawing military support for Ukraine alone might be reasonable, I disagree with it but I can see the sense in it.
But Trump is absolutely wrecking every relationship we have in the world, trading or otherwise, except with Russia, where he wants to remove sanctions and increase trade.
Even if you disregard all "moral" foreign policy objectives, like deterring wars of territorial expansion, it makes zero sense in economic terms. We're abandoning >>50% of world markets in exchange for access to... Russia's market? What do they even have to offer that we want? Oil or gas? We already produce more than we consume! Trading more with Russia will only kill domestic oil and gas producers and accomplish almost nothing else.
It makes zero sense, it will never make sense, stop trying to make it make sense.
It's clear as day and I'm incredibly skeptical of anyone that wants to claim otherwise and try and defend an emotional overgrown child's actions as rational.
Is it really that difficult to believe? When you see a crazy person on the street yelling into the air, do you think that there must be someone there that he can see that you cannot?
There is a plan. Don't try to make him look like an idiot who has no clue. This is dangerous. It's calculated and everybody around him has to start understat his motivations to defend themselves.
Interesting analysis. The shadow of the Iraq & Afghan wars looms large over current events and shouldn't be underestimated. And of course, those wouldn't have happened without 9/11. That one event seems to have led the US to begin to self destruct.
The "new party" shift began at least as far back as 2016. People generally don't seem to know when Bernie Sanders dropped out, a lot of his supporters switched to Trump, not another Democrat. Both were viewed as outsiders, an "anything is better than the establishment" candidate.
(Wanted to put this as a reply to GP but it's currently [flagged][dead] so this seems to be the most relevant reply...)
Elon Musk was never a democrat. In the first book which was written a decade ago, he proudly state that he will do on media whatever necessary to push his companies forward.
Every company needs a long-term marketing strategy, and using climate change as a growth vehicle in early days was needed.
He endorsed Trump and was his advisor in his previous presidency a decade ago.
JD Vance did 180 on Trump as well.
So we are talking about people, who will say whatever they need to say to get the results they want. They don't have any principles or political values.
Comparing the war in Iraq to the war in Ukraine is ridiculous on so many levels that I will not even start.
> What? Greenwald was never a Democrat. Anti-Bush isn't the same thing as Democrat.
Greenwald is a liberal, he was kicked out of liberal circles after the Hunter Biden's laptop story, the liberal elite wanted to suppress during the elections.
Bary Weiss is also a liberal, now hated by the liberal press for blasphemy on a certain subject.
Same with Matt Taibbi, he showed up on MSNBC regularly even on Maddow, now the left calls him a right winger...
Greenwald was never a liberal and never would have described himself as such.
Anyhow you haven't really even scratched the surface of all the lefty people who went right. And it's not even a new phenomenon. Heck even woodie guthrie swerved right during the red scare. One could say that the pastures are greener on the right side of the commentariat.
We are all, in all our information streams, rolling more dice than ever more times a day than ever, and you only need one or two snake eyes to start the process of going down an unfortunate path.
Greenwald was libertarian/right leaning. Went from supporting the Iraq War to being a Ron Paul fanboy to a useful Tankie idiot for the Silicon Valley right. Now a grievance grifter and an apologist for Putin and Assad.
Bari Weiss is not a liberal. She's a culture war grievance grifter.
Matt Taibbi got mad he got called out for his shitty sexist behavior in Russia in the 90s when MeToo happened and made a hard right turn. Now a grievance grifter.
