[Peace-discuss] Trudy Rubin

[David Green]

 "The most important factor, however, will be the governing choices made by Trump. The president-elect has made clear he has little interest in the network of post-WWII international political and economic institutions that America created and led for decades. No doubt they need overhaul, but if they crumble, the vacuum will be filled by others, notably China and Russia.      Moscow will also be trying to expand its geographical sphere of influence. It will be greatly emboldened if NATO and the EU collapse. But neither prospect seems to dismay Trump, who praises Putin and rejects proof of Russian hack attacks on our elections. (Does he dream of real estate deals in Moscow?)
The key to Western democracy's fate in 2017 will be whether, once in office, the president-elect moves to strengthen alliances with democracies in Europe and Asia. If he retreats to the America First stance he embraced in the election, and prefers to pal with Putin rather than Merkel, Western democracy will be in even deeper trouble.
So in 2017 watch whether President Trump chooses to defend democratic principles abroad (and at home) or whether he finds such principles irrelevant - and prefers to focus solely on the art of the deal." 
This respected liberal analyst from the Philadelphia Inquirer, Trudy Rubin, is now being published in the News-Gazette. The concluding comments above personify the liberal perspective on Trump: If he chooses to cooperate with Putin, he is undermining democracy; if he chooses to support NATO and perhaps go to war against Russia, he is supporting democracy. 
Got that?
DG

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