> You also made the point that a weakness of democracy is that it follows the general sentiment,
I never implied this is a weakness.
Instead…
> but clearly the US govt didn't give a damn that a lot of people didn't care about Russia or weren't even aware of the things the US govt was doing -- like trying to put US missile installations in other sovereign nations. We tried and tried... for a very long time.
I’m saying this is a clear failure of leadership.
> I've heard that Angela Merkel supported the shutdown of nuclear reactors after Fukishima because she wanted to shore up her popularity. An authoritarian leader could have done exactly the same thing -- who doesn't want to look good?
Then that’s a clear failure of leadership. In this instance, instead of persuading the public she let the public persuade her.
Still, if Merkel genuinely believed that Russia was a threat, I doubt she would have done this. Of course, we now believe German intelligence was compromised by Russia.
> Ultimately, I don't think democracy can be blamed. We can blame bad leadership in some cases, but that is a problem endemic to every political system.
We enabled our enemies because leadership believed that the market would liberalize our enemies. We let our guard down.
While late, it’s now leaderships’ job to persuade the public of the threats at hand.
I never implied this is a weakness.
Instead…
> but clearly the US govt didn't give a damn that a lot of people didn't care about Russia or weren't even aware of the things the US govt was doing -- like trying to put US missile installations in other sovereign nations. We tried and tried... for a very long time.
I’m saying this is a clear failure of leadership.
> I've heard that Angela Merkel supported the shutdown of nuclear reactors after Fukishima because she wanted to shore up her popularity. An authoritarian leader could have done exactly the same thing -- who doesn't want to look good?
Then that’s a clear failure of leadership. In this instance, instead of persuading the public she let the public persuade her.
Still, if Merkel genuinely believed that Russia was a threat, I doubt she would have done this. Of course, we now believe German intelligence was compromised by Russia.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/germany-soft-target-russi...
> Ultimately, I don't think democracy can be blamed. We can blame bad leadership in some cases, but that is a problem endemic to every political system.
We enabled our enemies because leadership believed that the market would liberalize our enemies. We let our guard down.
While late, it’s now leaderships’ job to persuade the public of the threats at hand.