Reality Check

The side we're really on.

Now that the German general election is behind us and the far-right advanced, but did not win, here’s a reality check to see if you found JD Vance’s support for the Alternative for Germany (AfD), the above-referenced far-right party, over the traditional values Germany has espoused since the end of WWII, as distressing as I did. If not, I’d love to know what I’m missing.

This happened a few days after Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth, told Europe we’re too busy over here to help you anymore. Hegseth really got out over his skis when he told Ukraine they can’t be in NATO because Russia would never accept that. It is exceedingly rare for the defense secretary to espouse foreign policy. Roger Wicker (R-MS), the Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman called Hegseth out for his “rookie mistake,” but when you think about it, it was no mistake. Of course he’s on firm ground. I saw the hand up the Hegseth marionette’s dress, but I couldn’t see Trump’s lips moving. He’s just that good.

Suddenly, America is confused over the easy question of good guys and bad guys. Let’s review. The bad guys invaded a sovereign country, and the good guys defended that country. See? It’s not that hard. You learned difference between good and bad in kindergarten, if not before.

And like the good mob boss Trump aspires to be, he had Scott Bessent, Secretary of the Treasury, inform Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, that we might continue to support their fight against tyranny, but only for half their mineral rights.

Honestly, it’s like a bad SNL sketch playing out in the real world. These characters in Trump’s orbit, billionaires and sycophants, not to mention sycophantic billionaires, are like unintentional parodies of what they must think mob bosses sound like.

Also, I’m wondering how to take Donald Trump accusing Ukraine of starting what is plainly (and until now, undisputed) Russia’s war of aggression.

Do people buy this about face on 80 years of decency?

Will we just cozy up to Viktor Orban? He’s the Hungarian dictator who pretends to run a democracy, and it might feel like one if you’re a white Christian man, but if you’re a racial or religious minority, or a woman, it decidedly doesn’t feel that way.

Is Elon Musk’s version of free speech (again, free for white Christian men only, and only those who agree with him) going to be the unwritten law of the land?

As Bill Kristol posted, “It's heartening that today the leaders of the two major parties in Germany are unequivocally anti-Nazi and anti-fascist. It's horrifying that today the president and vice-president of the United States of America are not.” Oh, they’re not the only ones. Donald Trump’s right hand man, Elon Musk, spoke to the AfD, calling them the best hope for Germany. He has also expressed his support for the right wing in the Netherlands, Brazil, Ireland, Argentina, Italy, New Zealand, and of course his native South Africa.

I don’t think it’s just me, but I need a reality check. I ask the same question historian Heather Cox Richardson asked: Are we really trading democracy for far-right authoritarianism?

All of this, of course, represents Vladimir Putin’s wettest dreams, but that doesn’t even cover it. It’s as if his craziest wishes, so far-fetched that they dared not be spoken in public, have come true. He has finally succeeded in driving a wedge between Europe and America.

How about that champion of the underdog, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, himself a first generation American whose parents risked everything to start a life here instead of Cuba, rushing off to Saudi Arabia to meet with his Russian counterpart so they could start divvying up Ukraine.

Let’s give Professor Richardson the last word: “After the Munich conference, in Writing from London, British journalist Nick Cohen wrote that those Americans trying to find an excuse for the betrayal of Ukraine are deluding themselves. He wrote: ‘[t]he radical right in the US is not engaged in a grand geopolitical strategy. It is pursuing an ideological campaign against its true enemy, which is not China or Russia but liberalism. The US culture war has gone global. The Trump administration hates liberals at home and liberal democracies abroad.’”

We are falling behind. Now we learn that Brazil has a better sense of democracy and the rule of law than we do. They’ve indicted the former president and thirty-three of his supporters for staging a coup after losing the last election. We spent a long time talking about South American banana republics like Brazil. Now, the shoe is on the other foot.

Germany held, and we must too, even though the Democrats are weak and propose half-measures. We can’t wait for the midterms. The forest is on fire now, and planting one tree won’t help.

©2025 Jon Sinton