When thugs can’t win on the battlefield, they cheat. This is what Vladimir Putin did in Ukraine. When his tank columns were destroyed, he decided to bomb homes, hospitals, schools, playgrounds and the electric grid, and shoot and attack innocent people. It appears his brutish logic told him that a weak Ukrainian leadership would rather beg for mercy than allow such carnage. Ukraine’s leadership was stronger than he thought.
What is fascinating is the weird parallel between Putin’s logic and the logic of the “Make America Great Again” Republicans. They fear they can’t win at the ballot box or in the courts, the normal battlefields in a democracy, so they have found ways to cheat that, in their own way, provide an intensity of pain not unlike the brutish depictions above. For example, rather than bombing schools, they don’t stop mass killings of schoolchildren or try to find intelligent solutions to assault weapons; rather than bombing hospitals, they have demonized vaccination programs, mask-wearing, mandates and other means to slow the spread of disease, thus making hospitals absolute misery for those inside trying to save lives. They also take away women’s bodily autonomy by preventing the destruction of fetuses, however they came into existence.
We shouldn’t feign ignorance about what will happen to America if “Make America Great Again” wins in 2024. All we have to do is watch and listen to the three major MAGA and pro-MAGA actors currently on stage, Donald Trump, Viktor Orban and Putin, all of whom are intent on destroying our democracy, where every citizen is equal under the law. We need to follow Ukraine’s example and fight for what is right.
Julia Sperry
Hockessin