The following is from an article by Professor Yoichi Shimada of Fukui Prefectural University in today's issue of the monthly magazine, Hanada.
It is a must-read not only for the people of Japan but also for people around the world.
The emphasis in the text other than the headline is mine.
The Weakest Biden's Decarbonization Fundamentalism That Made Putin Pull the Trigger
Shock to the White House
On February 25, a poll released by Harvard University's Center for the Study of American Politics, the intellectual stronghold of U.S. liberals, made headlines.
In fact, 62% of U.S. voters said that Putin would not have invaded Ukraine if Trump were president.
Looking at the breakdown by party affiliation, 85% of Republicans said yes, which is understandable, but even among Democrats, 38% said no. In other words, nearly 40% said yes.
Another 59% said that Putin moved because he saw Biden as weak.
Conservative media outlets such as FOX News, but the Harvard survey, which supports the Biden administration in terms of personnel and policy, cannot be faulted for the reliability of the numbers, even in the left-liberal camp.
No wonder the White House is reportedly shocked.
Why, then, can we assume that if Trump were president, Putin would not have been able to engage in such blatant aggression?
Let's hear Trump's explanation first.
On March 10, Trump appeared on a FOX News interview program and said the following. "I don't think this is the same Putin I was dealing with. If I had kept dealing with him, he wouldn't have changed. What is happening now is a crime." "I've done well with Putin, Xi Jinping, Kim Jong Un, etc. It's not because they are good people. I knew them, and more than that, they knew me. They knew that if they acted foolishly, they would suffer great retribution from me."
They are 100% always looking out only for their self-interest. Putin only looks out for Russia. This whole situation happened because they don't respect our leader."
In short, like the majority opinion in the earlier poll, Trump concludes that Putin moved because he saw Biden as weak.
In addition, Trump said in a rally speech in South Carolina on March 12, citing inflation under the Biden administration, the influx of illegal immigrants, and the blunder of the Afghanistan withdrawal operation, "the five worst presidents in U.S. history. Together, it would be less than the calamity Joe Biden had brought to the country in just 13 months."
Republicans, and to a lesser extent Democrats, would agree.
Political Correctness & the Greta Line
As the late President Ronald Reagan once described him as a "pure demagogue," Biden has no firm views of his own and is basically a man who waits for the congressional Democrats to establish their majority and then follows them in a determined tone, but only in posture.
Therefore, in contrast to Trump, who deliberately uses "unpredictability" as a weapon, his words and actions are very easy to read.
He will not take any action before a consensus is fostered among congressional Democrats, and when he sees that the majority is set, he will finally make his move a few steps late.
Moreover, unlike Trump, who is not bound by traditional Republican boundaries, he leans toward the Democratic Party as a whole. As the left gains momentum, he tends to lean toward a self-defeating "Political Correctness & the Greta Line" that undermines national power.
The term "Poli Corre," a Japanese abbreviation of "political correctness" with slight contempt, is nothing more than the imposition of a leftist ideology with "anti-discrimination" as its banner.
Greta is named after Greta Thunberg, a Swedish environmental activist internationally feted as a heroine of the anti-carbon movement.
For some time now, "decarbonization" has been the watchword of the left-wing circle, from the far left to progressives.
Biden has been riding the wave uncritically and naturally.
Biden's weakness means the weakening of the core of the American nation through the "Poli Corre-Greta line."
In this sense, the difference between Trump and Biden is not merely a dimension of personal impressions, such as "Trump is unpredictable and scary."
There is a more substantial difference concerning the resilience of the American nation.
This article continues.
