Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has no desire to be caught between the two sides of the American impeachment process. He needs American help as his country fends off relentless Russian aggression, and he can’t afford to antagonize either party. Not knowing who is going to win the White House next year, he’s playing the percentages and has corroborated, however reluctantly, Donald Trump’s assertion that no pressure had been put on him to provide dirt on Vice President Joe Biden in return for releasing US aid.
Zelensky has figured correctly. Like all pathological narcissists, Trump is a hugely vengeful person who is capable of holding a grudge for years. American national interests are of no importance to him because he’s only concerned with his own ego and well-being. If Zelensky doesn’t cooperate, and Trump is reelected, the next four years could be hell for Ukraine.
The Democrats may be vengeful as well, but at least they understand that supporting Ukraine and standing up to Russian aggression is key to the stability of the global political system— and thus a vital interest for the United States.
However, even as things now stand, Trump’s reelection will not be good for Ukraine. Trump is no friend of Zelensky’s country. Even though Robert Mueller’s lame investigation refused to draw conclusions on the conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia — because, as he stated, Trump and his minions refused to cooperate with him and Mueller could not be bothered to make them — evidence of Trump doing Putin’s bidding keeps accumulating. If Trump wins a second term, cooperation between his administration and the Kremlin will greatly intensify.
Ironically, as Trump surrogates defend him against accusations of blackmailing Ukraine for personal political gain, they inadvertently confirm the unproven charge of collusion. Former Republican Congressman Sean Duffy recently attacked Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, who had testified to Congress about the telephone conversation between Trump and Zelensky, declaring: “He has an affinity for Ukraine. He speaks Ukrainian, he came from the country.”
Thus a Trumpist has revealed that, by being loyal to Ukraine, Vindman should be automatically anti-Trump. And why being loyal to Ukraine means being anti-Trump? The answer is obvious: because Trump sides with Ukraine’s enemy, Russia.
Duffy correctly got flack for his insinuations — not only from the Democrats, but, surprise, surprise, from some Republicans as well. Vindman is an American serviceman, a highly decorated veteran of the Iraq war, etc., and casting doubt on his loyalty to the United States is truly disgusting.
But in truth, what country is Vindman, a Ukrainian-born, New York-raised Jewish American, loyal to?
probably can answer this question by citing my own experience. I came to the U.S. from the former Soviet Union a few years before the Vindmans and at a somewhat older age than Alexander and his twin. But I believe we shared the values of that wave of immigration.
In the 1970s, America was still a very insular country. Foreign-born Americans were a rarity, reflecting the restrictive immigration laws of the interwar period. In all, only around 5-6% of Americans had been born abroad in the second half of the 1970s, probably the lowest percentage ever.
For the Europeans — especially for us, the former Soviets — Americans were still something of a legend, fed by the echoes of World War II, when they came and rescued the continent from Adolph Hitler and Joseph Stalin.
This may have been a bit of an exaggeration, but they seemed richer and freer than anyone else, at ease with themselves, and magnanimous. Fashions, music, movies, books — all that came from the States and was forbidden in the Soviet Union seemed fantastic. America was the country of limitless opportunity which not only allowed us in but seemed to welcome us with open arms.
Our diaspora was perhaps the last trickle of the wide-eyed throngs that poured into New York and other American cities in the late 19th century and early 20th. Those immigrants came to America to start a new life. They brought their families from Italy, Ireland and the Russian Empire, but after that they didn’t have much contact with the “old country.”
Instead, they wanted to assimilate, to become Americans. People with names like Alfonso Verdi changed them to Al Green, they preferred to speak heavily accented English rather than their native tongues and Belarus-born Irving Berlin wrote great American patriotic anthems.
Soviet Jews of the 1970s were somewhat similar. Communications with the Soviet Union were technologically possible, and there were regular flights between Moscow and major US cities, but repressive Soviet policies made it very difficult. Besides, we were stripped of our Soviet citizenship when we left and told that we would never be allowed back.
Thus, we both wanted to become American and were pushed toward assimilation.
This changed in subsequent decades, both for those who were born in the former Soviet Union and for other immigrants, many more of whom have come to America since 1980. The percentage of foreign-born has more than doubled, to 13%, and the number quadrupled, to 40 million. It created a critical mass for various immigrant communities, while technological progress allowed them to stay in touch with their friends “back home” in real-time via the internet. And to stay tuned to political and cultural developments in their native countries, to watch the news and movies.
Meanwhile, the Soviet Union first opened up and then collapsed, which suddenly made two-way communication possible.
Today’s immigrants may not have double loyalties, but they certainly have double identities and are not so eager to assimilate. America still offers great opportunities but on the whole, it is poorer, dirtier and dumpier than lots of other places on earth. The sense of American freedom has been greatly curtailed by the security state built after 9/11. And, worse, the magnanimity seems to be gone forever and quite a few Americans now feel short-changed and resentful – especially toward immigrants.
The two associates of Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, Ukraine-born Lev Parnas, and Belarus-born Igor Fruman, seem to embody those newer immigrants. Even though Parnas came to the US as a child, much like the Vindmans, he chose to run scams between America, Russia, and Ukraine, with loyalty to none and contempt for all three.
But the Vindmans were the products of that older wave of immigration. They came here at the age of three, but they imbibed this ethic from their hard-working father and serviceman-brother. In some ways, they are probably more American than the native-born — kind of like Irving Berlin.
Vindman is loyal to the America he came to — perhaps an idealized version, but nonetheless, one in which everyone was equal before the law, the president and his family didn’t blatantly self-deal and politicians didn’t lie or foul-mouth patriots. Lt. Col. Vindman was, therefore, a bit of an odd duck in this White House.
And yes, he probably feels sympathetic toward Ukraine. Not loyal, but sympathetic. And not because he was born there but because he is loyal to America and knows very well that Russia is the common enemy.
This loyalty to America and not to Trump is why he is going to be maligned and attacked for a long time now, and maybe even hounded out of the military to which he has devoted
