Although the farcical Mueller Commission is now ended and even
the results it came up with, practically speaking, effectively exonerated the
president, to listen to various members of the media, including many Fox
pundits, most Democrats and many Republicans, it was if there was no “investigation”
at all. The same “Russia Hoax” narrative continues: just listen to
Representative Adam Schiff spiel on for a while. For such national
personalities nothing has really changed.
This template, despite what
we now know and always have known, continues frenetically and unabated before
our eyes. It’s why Roger Stone faces prison time, essentially because he was
convicted for lying about non-existent Russian subversion in America elections.
“Russia is bad,” we are told,
and its president, Vladimir Putin, is really, really bad. Why, he may be as bad
as, let’s see, maybe those old Commies prior to 1991, or maybe he IS a Commie?
Certainly, say Fox interviewees like Representatives Dan Crenshaw and Adan
Kinzinger, or Neoconservative publicists such as Jonah Goldberg. Communism, it
seems, still rampages and “Russia is still our Number One Enemy” (remember Mitt
Romney saying that?).
My friend Dr. Paul Gottfried just
recently sent me a news article; it concerns something President Vladimir
Putin recently said and was
quoted by Reuters news service
(February 13), specifically, that in no uncertain terms he totally ruled out
homosexual marriage in Russia. In reference to discussions over modifications
to the Russian constitution he declared: “As far as ‘parent number 1’ and
‘parent number 2’ goes, I’ve already spoken publicly about this and I’ll repeat
it again: as long as I’m president this will not happen. There will be dad and
mum.”
Indeed, back in December,
addressing a meeting in the Kremlin Putin forcefully reaffirmed his
nation’s commitment to traditional matrimony:
President Vladimir Putin
remarked at a recent Kremlin meeting that some countries are replacing the word
“mother” out of concerns for political correctness, something he hoped ‘would
never happen in Russia’. Putin was referring to a law passed in France earlier
this year which mandates that schools refrain from using ‘father’ and ‘mother’
and instead use ‘parent 1’ and ‘parent 2’. According to government MP Valérie
Petit, the change was necessary because using ‘father’ and ‘mother’ is “old
fashioned” and doesn’t meet the needs of “social equality.” Don’t expect to see
Russia following suit.
During a meeting of the
Council for Interethnic Relations, a Kremlin advisory group, Putin told
delegates, “You said the word mother ‘can’t be replaced.’ It turns out,
perhaps, it can; in some countries, they now have ‘parent number one’ and
‘parent number two.’ I hope we will never have that (in Russia). I
will do everything to stop it.”
Back in June, Vladimir Putin
commented on a similar topic, asserting that liberalism was in its death throws
thanks to forced multiculturalism. “The ruling elites have broken away
from the people,” Putin told the Financial Times, adding that
the “so-called liberal idea has outlived its purpose.”
This is not new; Putin’s
statements and vision for Russia are not secret. Yet, to listen to the American
media, very little of what he has said and very little of the legislative
action of the Russian Duma (parliament) is reported by the American press. Or,
if it is reported, it is done in such a way as to portray the Russian
president and his country in an extremely negative and hostile light. Russia,
it is repeated daily, is “authoritarian,” anti-democratic, does not respect human
rights and persecutes minorities (e.g., homosexuals, lesbians, etc.); it is
aggressive and has “invaded” its neighbors (e.g., Ukraine, Georgia). And Putin
is a “KGB thug” who “wants to restore the Soviet Union” (cf., Representative
Kinzinger).
Over the past six or so years I have written extensively about this
narrative. Very simply it is the iron-cage ideological framework that now
dominates both Democratic and Republican parties, with a few exceptions. There
are voices raised in objection to it: Professors Stephen Cohen (Princeton
University) and Paul Robinson (University of Ottawa), and Tucker Carlson on his
nightly television program (with guests like former colonel and consultant
Douglas MacGregor), and maybe Senator Rand Paul in Congress. But those voices
are few in the spectrum of political opinion here in the United States.
The major media, including to
a large extent Fox, simply avoid actually quoting Putin, and every action taken
in Russia is a perceived threat to America, or to “the sanctity of our
democratic elections.”
When was the last time, for
instance, that you heard a major American news outlet actually cite something
Putin said, a speech, an official statement of Russian policy? Just to take one
example—there are many—back on September 20, 2013 he spoke to the
annual International Valdai Forum. Here is just a portion of that speech,
made before a gathering of representatives from around the world:
“…We can see how many of the
Euro-Atlantic countries are actually rejecting their roots, including the
Christian values that constitute the basis of Western civilisation. They are
denying moral principles and all traditional identities: national, cultural,
religious and even sexual. They are implementing policies that equate large
families with same-sex partnerships, belief in God with the belief in Satan.
“The excesses of political
correctness have reached the point where people are seriously talking about
registering political parties whose aim is to promote paedophilia. People in
many European countries are embarrassed or afraid to talk about their religious
affiliations. Holidays are abolished or even called something different; their
essence is hidden away, as is their moral foundation. And people are
aggressively trying to export this model all over the world. I am convinced
that this opens a direct path to degradation and primitivism, resulting in a
profound demographic and moral crisis.
“What else but the loss of
the ability to self-reproduce could act as the greatest testimony of the moral
crisis facing a human society? Today almost all developed nations are no longer
able to reproduce themselves, even with the help of migration. Without the
values embedded in Christianity and other world religions, without the
standards of morality that have taken shape over millennia, people will
inevitably lose their human dignity. We consider it natural and right to defend
these values. One must respect every minority’s right to be different, but
the rights of the majority must not be put into question.”
I have cited these remarks
previously; they are not unique. For Putin has been saying the same thing for
years—and enacting legislation mirroring what he says that also reflects the
desires and aspirations of the great majority of Russia’s citizenry.
Back a little over five years ago I authored a longish researched essay
on Vladimir Putin and what has been and is going on in Russia since the fall of
Communism in the fall of 1991. Although the essay could use some updating, the
essential information I provide remains accurate and, I believe, useful.
I am passing it along today:
Examining the Hatred of Vladimir Putin and Russia
A Conservative Analysis by BOYD D. CATHEY • DECEMBER 29, 2014
A Conservative Analysis by BOYD D. CATHEY • DECEMBER 29, 2014
Reprinted
from My Corner by Boyd Cathey.
Copyright © Boyd D. Cathey