I don’t believe, by the way, that the US is obligated to avenge a dead Russian dissident as a matter of principle. Or defend Ukraine from a Russian invasion, for that matter.
What I do believe is that if an American president made a very public promise, or if the US signed treaties and agreements, these promises and agreements should be honored.
The US signed the Budapest Memorandum and then spent 20 years aggressively coercing Ukraine to disarm and promising to defend it if Russia invaded. Once you incur an obligation, you have to follow through. If you don’t want to or can’t do that, then simply don’t incur obligations. Don’t promise, don’t sign, don’t foam at the mouth.
This isn’t unreasonable or too much to ask. The US placed itself between Ukraine and Russia since 1990. And then stayed there all through the Clinton, Bush and Obama presidencies. Then in 2014 we suddenly discovered that all those promises, including the very recent ones, were bunkum.
This is why I’m so annoyed by the “not my war” slogan. It very much is your war because your country made this war possible through consistent, open, decades-long policy. A nation-state by definition conducts foreign policy. You can’t have a nation-state while simultaneously saying, “I personally didn’t make these promises, so it has nothing to do with me.”
“I’m an individual and not bound by the social contract of my nation-state” is a post-national approach. And post-national means “open-border.” Because if there’s no nation, there can be no border like there can be no nose without a face for the nose to be located.
Not your war? Not your promises and obligations? Great. Welcome to the world without borders, police, comfort, standards of living, and everything else that the nation-state brings. Welcome to the third-world hellhole you are ushering in with your anti-national tantrums. Welcome to the world where words mean nothing and duty was obliterated by the whim of the moment. I hope you enjoy it since you worked so hard to bring it about.
Clarissa's Blog 
Clarissa, you talk as if it was the entire US political establishment that was against helping Ukraine defend itself and make Russia pay.
The truth is MAGA Republicans that are doing everything to help Russia win the war and are playing obstructionist politics to even provide Ukraine with the bare minimum. They tied up Ukrainian aid with immigration on purpose to delay and obstruct, now that the Senate passed a bill uniquely aimed at providing aid without the totally unrelated immigration issue, they are still dragging their feet, decided to go on break while Ukrainians face critical shortages, and Republican leader Mike Jonhson now has literally said he’s in no rush to provide aid:
https://apnews.com/article/house-speaker-johnson-ukraine-aid-06889e166a5417d5b4bc7795813e37ef
Ten years ago I don’t think anybody would have guessed Republicans would turn into such Russian boot lickers, but here we are.
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“Welcome to the world without borders, police, comfort, standards of living, and everything else that the nation-state brings.”
In other words, welcome to what’s already been starting to happen in America since 2020?
You may not notice it particularly strongly where you live. I, myself, am lucky enough to live in a tiny town that is both remote and of particular interest to the American overclass because their children go to school here; so, the damage where I live has been relatively light. But across a great deal of the U.S., the impact of our current regime’s importing 8 million or so “refugees” into the U.S., while simultaneously making political dissent a crime but actual crime accepted behavior, and while *also* doing everything possible to abolish prosperity for what used to be the American middle class, is large and growing.
That combination of factors is motivating a lot of the GOP become effectively isolationist. Maybe it shouldn’t do that. But, it *is* doing that.
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“what’s already been starting to happen in America since 2020?”
It started to happen a loooonnnggg time before 2020. Reagan’s policies vastly increased Mexican migration to the US and his amnesty was a signal that if you show up and wait you’ll be legalized eventually.
No republican since did anything substantive on the border question, even Donald “I built no wall!” Trump.
“GOP become effectively isolationist”
I won’t believe any major republican figures want to do something about the border until I hear what their come-to-jesus moment was.
Clarissa can name the main (or a major) turning point on her views regarding feminism which was the Kavanaugh hearings…
What changed any particular GOPer’s opinion that a large, never-ending supply of cheap labor was crucial to national well-being?
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I wrote my comment before seeing this one but yes, exactly. Reagan did everything to make sure that the conservative California that elected him no longer existed. Why do people think California became such a bastion of leftism in the past 20 years? What changed other than the demographic revolution that Reagan inflicted on it?
Remember, it’s not the migrants who create a leftist shift. It’s their children, and especially grandchildren.
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Why 2020, though? Reagan was the first president to open the borders in a major way, and it’s been going on uninterrupted since then.
I highly recommend Ann Coulter’s book “Adios, America” where she explains the process in great detail.
Trump’s presidency was supposed to be a big game-changer, and it wasn’t. Again, I recommend what Ann Coulter has written since 2016 on the subject.
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