Re: [Marxism] Trump Is Fulfilling Russia’s Dream of Splitting the Western Alliance

[MM via Marxism]

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> On Jun 8, 2018, at 2:03 PM, A.R. G via Marxism  
> wrote:
> 
> I wonder if others on the list might weigh in on the implications in this
> article that Trump, by stupidity or by design, is a player in this
> allegedly Duginist, pro-Russian plot.

I doubt it’s possible to know whether Trump’s involvement is by stupidity or by 
design — and I’m inclined to think that distinction breaks down when it finds 
itself in proximity to Trump — but I continue to be surprised that anyone 
claiming to be on the left has doubts about Putin’s / Dugin’s strategy of 
dividing the West. I have to wonder what people think his strategic objectives 
could possibly be, if not that.

Of course, that doesn’t negate the fact that the reaction to Putin’s strategy 
from the US ruling elite can only be described as hysterical.

But it’s kind of stunning that anyone on the left could see Russian plotting 
and Western hysteria as mutually exclusive, or even in tension.

The Atlantic just published something that traces a significant trajectory of 
Kremlin influence over Trump, via Manafort, that few people on the left have 
paid much attention to, despite an extensive body of evidence:

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/06/the-astonishing-tale-of-the-man-mueller-calls-person-a/562217/
 


And here’s an interview with Wahid Azal, who knows both Dugin and the smelly 
esoteric milieu from which Dugin was spawned, in which he eventually gets 
around to explaining how undermining Western alliances serves Dugin’s goal of a 
new imperial “Eurasianism” (and which is worth listening to despite Azal’s 
obvious biases and weak politics):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rj6Aj6n-HM 


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[Marxism] Trump Is Fulfilling Russia’s Dream of Splitting the Western Alliance

[A.R. G via Marxism]

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Interested in perspectives about this article from NY Mag. On Reddit
someone argued that Trump was following a manual for isolating US
influence. When I clicked on this "manual" I was led to the wikipedia page
for Aleksander Dugin, the Russian fascist whose influence some of the
anarchist voices argue is behind the alleged Red-Brown alliance.

As others know, I think the evidence of the red-brown alliance is very weak
and being used to unfairly target anti-war voices in lieu of other
(legitimate) criticisms. But at the same time, I admit I do not know much
about Dugin or his philosophy because I assumed it was just Russian ethnic
chauvinism and there wasn't much to see.

I wonder if others on the list might weigh in on the implications in this
article that Trump, by stupidity or by design, is a player in this
allegedly Duginist, pro-Russian plot.

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/06/trump-is-fulfilling-russias-dream-of-splitting-the-west.html

By Jonathan Chait

One of Russia’s principal foreign-policy goals for decades has been to
split the United States from is allies. Whether by accident or by design,
President Trump appears intent on bringing that dream to fruition.

The most immediate theater of Western disarray is today’s G7 meeting in
Canada. Trump has been fomenting a trade war, hurling wild and largely
groundless accusations at America’s allies. “Why isn’t the European Union
and Canada informing the public that for years they have used massive Trade
Tariffs and non-monetary Trade Barriers against the U.S. Totally unfair to
our farmers, workers & companies,” he demands. “Take down your tariffs &
barriers or we will more than match you!”

Western trade partners have attempted to reason with Trump’s demands, but
the problem is that the basis for his beliefs and actions is entirely
fantastical. If your neighbor is irate that you let your dog run loose in
his yard, you can pacify him. If he’s irate that you are reading his
thoughts through his tinfoil hat, there’s nothing you can do except
disengage. And that is what they are doing. French president Emmanuel
Macron threatened to sign a six-country agreement omitting the U.S.
altogether. Canadian prime Minister Justin Trudeau vowed “to defend our
industries and our workers” and “show the U.S. president that his
unacceptable actions are hurting his own citizens.”

But trade is merely a symptom of a larger rearrangement of American
alienation from its partners. The West has attempted to prevail upon Trump
to retain, in some form, a series of agreements he inherited: the
Trans-Pacific Partnership, the Paris climate agreement, and the Iran
nuclear deal. In every instance the negotiations foundered on Trump’s
allergy to compromise and immunity to reason. You can’t negotiate a climate
plan with a person who considers climate science a Chinese hoax any more
than you can negotiate a trade deal with somebody who believes Canada must
be punished for the War of 1812.

The mutual loathing contains both a personality component and a structural
component. One by one, Trump’s personal relationship with the leader of
each major U.S. ally has been fatally poisoned. Angela Merkel, whom Trump
had repeatedly taunted and likened to Hillary Clinton during his campaign,
was the first major leader to give up on Trump. “It’s difficult to
overstate just how enraged Germany is about Trump,” reports Matthew
Karnitschnig. Trump’s allies tell one British newspaper he “has grown
frustrated with Theresa May’s ‘school mistress’ tone.” (May publicly
corrected Trump’s circulation of fake videos blaming Muslims for violence.)
Trump “has griped periodically both about German Chancellor Angela Merkel —
largely because they disagree on many issues and have had an uneasy rapport
— as well as British Prime Minister Theresa May, whom he sees as too
politically correct,” his advisers tell the Washington Post.

Macron, who has bent over backwards to flatter and placate Trump, has found
his efforts unrewarded. A recent phone call between the two was “terrible,”
a source tells CNN. “Macron thought he would be able to speak his mind,
based on the relationship. But Trump can’t handle being criticized like
that.”

It’s not as if Trump is unable to get along with anybody. He has drawn our
country closer to a variety of despots: in the Gulf states, North Korea,
China, and of course Russia. There is an element of personality involved
here. Trump admires strongmen. “Who are the three guys in the world he most
admires?” a Trump adviser told the Post last year. “President Xi [Jinping]
of China, [Turkish President Recep Tayyip] Erdogan and Putin. They’re all
the same guy.”