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Despite his pro-American slogans, Donald Trump’s rhetoric makes one wonder if he’s not really playing into the hands of Vladimir Putin. How do the US elections look when viewed from the Kremlin?

 

A Trump presidency is favored by the Kremlin, because based on how Trump is attacking issues (that is, taking a more isolationist position) he is weakening U.S. influence in Europe, and the world in general.  This leaves a path for a heightened Russian influence, even though technically the Russian argument is that it allows for a multipolar world. The problem with the argument of a multipolar world in today’s context is that, with weaker coalitions and broken treaties, the West is not really becoming multi powered as the President claims. Rather, as he would hope, it is becoming weaker and the weaker it becomes, the harder it is for the West to control Russia or to influence nations commonly allied with Russia.

The most surprising part of this article, however, is the last paragraph:

It is hard to imagine “candidate Putin” would not be re-elected in 2018 as he remains very popular at home. But Putin’s popularity – unlike Donald Trump’s – is not built upon charisma. “Putin’s succession is more procedural and legalistic than charismatic,” says Baunov. “It is not a popularity contest. Putin legitimizes himself. That’s why we still have elections.”

This is highly significant because charisma is a key factor in totalitarian dictatorships. While Trump is popular because he is  charismatic, if he wins the election, then he is technically legitimized as well, because it is actually the people’s decision to elect him. On the other hand, if Putin wins again, it will be due more to a third factor than legitimate elections. Putin has long been recognized to run an authoritarian-esque government. Everything is centralized around him, elections included. Legitimacy is just a sham.

Though, if Trump gets elected, legitimacy in our system may be seen as a sham too.

BUT…

In reality, a Trump-like character as president is made possible by of the very nature of our democracy. Every election can’t produce two favored candidates. The lesser of two evils is just the worst case scenario of this system.

Source: U.S. Elections: Is Donald Trump The Kremlin’s Candidate? – Forbes

3 thoughts on “U.S. Elections: Is Donald Trump The Kremlin’s Candidate? – Forbes”

  1. The possibility that Putin hacked the DNC computers knowing that he would find damaging information that he could then use to sway our elections sounds REALLY far-fetched and really sounds very conspiracy theory-ish.

    BUT… that being said, Putin would like Trump to win because Trump is not so hell bent on starting a war with Russia, like everyone else seems to be right now. We REALLY do not need to be involved in a war with Russia right now. Enough with the wars right now, right?

    1. It IS very conspiracy theory-ish, but it begs the question, why hack the DNC? What could Russia get out of it, if it was Russia that did it in the first place. It could very well have been a low level person who hacked it (like some believe), who just so happened to get something incriminating out of it.

      Trump on the other hand isn’t hell bent on starting a war with Russia because he doesn’t see a profit from winning a war with Russia, but if he does, Russia will become just another target for him.

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