The juxtaposition between an American president and a wannabe from Tallahassee
The president of the United States boarded a train on Polish soil, and began a 10-hour long secret journey to battle-scarred Kyiv in war-torn Ukraine. President Biden travelled by rail, and moved towards the danger inflicted on the Ukrainian people by the war criminal Vladimir Putin.
The president of the United States was, per usual, immaculately dressed and wearing his trademark Ray-Ban aviators, which matched perfectly with his expertly knotted blue and yellow tie, honoring Ukraine’s national colors. His sartorial crispness and style made clear the era of his predecessor’s ‘schlubbery’ had come to a merciful end. President Biden appeared like an American commander in chief imagined from central casting — experienced, wise, dignified and stalwart.
Yet, the surprise visit was about so much more than staging, optics, or even its manifest danger. The visit was a declaration of resolve. It will bolster the resistance of the Ukrainian people towards the deadly Russian war that has turned Vladimir Putin and his cabal of gangsters into war criminals who have unleashed murder, rape, kidnapping and mass executions as instruments of state terror in a war of genocide. Thousands of Ukrainian children have been kidnapped and sent east to unknown destinations. The American president has laid down a marker and drawn a line. He did it in Ukraine with words that will join those of John F. Kennedy:
All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin, and, therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words "Ich bin ein Berliner.”
They will also join those of Ronald Reagan:
In a pantheon of declarations that will be long remembered and carved in granite, Biden said the following yesterday in Kyiv:
I’m here to show our unwavering support for the nation’s independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity.
One year later, Kyiv stands. And Ukraine stands. Democracy stands. The Americans stand with you, and the world stands with you.
The war in Ukraine is savage, bloody and brutal. It has upended the lives of every Ukrainian, and turned school teachers into infantry soldiers. A nation of fractious political parties has become a unified force that is defending democracy with unshakable will and staggering sacrifices. The Ukrainians are fighting alone, and they have not asked for foreign or American intervention. They have asked for the weapons and training that balance the fight, and give the Ukrainian people a chance to keep their freedom and culture from being extinguished. The American commitment of $50 billion in lethal aid is a proverbial drop in the bucket against the future costs that will measure in the trillions should Russia eliminate Ukraine as a nation, and next menace the Baltic states or Poland.
The isolationist movement in America will become more emboldened, powerful and vocal in the months ahead as its tenants are embraced by Fox News and the MAGA/GOP 2024 front runner Florida Governor Ron Desantis. Hours after President Biden laid a wreath in Kyiv, honoring Ukrainian war dead and walked the streets with President Zelenskyy — while air raid sirens blared — nine minutes of unrequited asininity played out in a spectacle of vapidity and idiocy on Fox News between the air-headed trio of MAGA propagandists — who lie for profit — and Ron DeSantis.