Many Ukraine citizens expressed surprise and even shock as the Russian military launched an unprovoked assault on their sovereign nation last week.
Russian troops had been massing at Ukraine’s border for weeks and President Joe Biden, armed with U.S. intelligence reports, had been warning that an attack was imminent.
But U.S. intelligence had been wrong before. Most notoriously, the country’s claims that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction before the U.S. attacked Iraq in 2003 were untrue.
And it was also hard to believe that neighboring Russia, with strong ties to people in Ukraine, would for no reason launch the largest military attack in Europe since Hitler invaded Poland in September 1939.
Then Russia launched its attack.
The refusal of people to recognize an imminent threat was the subject of a one-on-one Blank Slate Media interview two weeks ago with Jonathan Greenblatt, the CEO of the Anti-Defamation League and the author of “It Could Happen Here.”
But the discussion that evening and the book were not about Ukraine.
The discussion centered instead on the United States and the threat posed by the alarming rise in antisemitism, racism and other forms of intolerance in this country in recent years.
The threat, in Greenblatt’s words, of America “tipping from hate to the unthinkable.”
The title to Greenblatt’s book is a play on “It Can’t Happen Here,” a novel written in 1935 by Upton Sinclair that imagines the improbable election of an authoritarian over President Franklin Roosevelt.
And like Sinclair, Greenblatt is informed by the rise of Adolf Hitler and in Greenblatt’s case the escape of his grandparents from Nazi Germany.
His grandfather, he said, never imagined what would happen in Germany and how his grandson would be born and grow up in the United States.
ADL’s most recent Audit of Antisemitic Incidents in the United States recorded more than 2,100 acts of assault, vandalism and harassment in a year – the highest level of antisemitic incidents since ADL’s tracking began in 1979.
The rise of hate has included the alt right “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August 2017, where hundreds of marchers raised Nazi salutes, waved swastika flags and shouted “Seig Heil” And “Jews will not replace us!”
Greenblatt points out that other forms of hate against other groups, including Blacks and Asians, have also increased in recent years.
Not all hatred of Jews came from the right. Jews, he said, faced both physical and verbal attacks on the streets and on campuses from left-leaning groups often fueled by events in Israel.
But it is no coincidence that the rise in hatred tracks closely with the rise of Donald Trump in American politics.
Trump seeded his first presidential campaign by questioning the birthplace of Barack Obama, the country’s first Black president, kicked off his campaign by smearing Mexicans, instituted a Muslim ban at the start of his administration and continued for the next four years to divide the country and embolden white supremacists, neo-Nazis and other supporters of hate.
In his book and in his talk, Greenblatt presented ways to oppose hate that start with confronting it wherever it takes place and whoever is promoting it. And that it is the duty of everyone to voice opposition, especially our leaders.
The opposite of speaking out against hate is, of course, is silence.
We have already commented on this, but it bears repeating: Nassau County Republicans, like most GOP supporters across the country, have said little or nothing about Trump’s hate-inspiring comments or the assault incited by Trump on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, intended to overturn the election.
The insurrection, which threatened the lives of members of Congress and Vice President Mike Pence, was led on by white supremacists and neo-Nazis carrying Confederate flags and wearing T-shirts that said “Camp Auschwitz” and “Six Million is Not Enough” – a reference to the number of Jews killed by Nazis during World War II.
Among them were members of the Proud Boys, an openly racist and antisemitic group. You might remember them from when Trump was questioned about his support of extremist groups at a presidential debate and said Proud Boys should “stand back and stand by.”
You might also remember when the Proud Boys marched in Rockville Centre last fall and Nassau County Republicans said nothing.
Two weeks ago, the Nassau County Republican Party endorsed Lee Zeldin, a congressman from Suffolk County and vocal supporter of the former president, as the Republican nominee for governor.
Zeldin was one of 121 House Republicans to vote against certifying the presidential election results in both Arizona and Pennsylvania – after the mob assaulted the Capitol to prevent the election from being certified.
Zeldin then became the lone dissenting vote in the Long Island congressional delegation on a bill to create a 9/11-type commission to investigate the most serious attack on our election system since the Civil War.
Let’s be clear: To vote to overturn a presidential election is to reject democracy and should disqualify someone from holding any elective office let alone being governor.
We should also be clear that the United States and its allies are now locked in a battle with Putin between democracy and authoritarianism.
If there was any doubt left about which side Trump stands, he eliminated it when he called Russian leader Vladimir Putin two days before the invasion a “genius” and “pretty smart” last week for “taking over a country — really a vast, vast location, a great piece of land with a lot of people — and just walking right in.”
Sen. Mitt Romney, the Republican candidate for president in 2012, rightly called Trump’s comments “almost treasonous.”
Trump’s comments should not be a shock to anyone. He supported Putin throughout his political career and Putin supported Trump using intolerance as a weapon.
Trump also condemned the Russian invasion Saturday but said at the same time that Biden was weak and Putin smart.
Remember the 2016 election when Putin supported Trump by using social media to inflame racial, religious and ethnic differences – as documented in the Mueller report and backed by U.S. intelligence agencies.
Remember also when Trump attempted to extort Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky to dig up dirt on Joe Biden in exchange for releasing defensive missiles already approved by Congress. That was the reason for the second impeachment.
Trump was joined in providing aid and comfort to Putin by former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who has lauded the Russian strongman over the past month as a “talented,” “savvy,” “capable statesman.”
And Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who has said on air that it is “not un-American” to support Putin, “Ukraine is not a democracy” and “Ukraine is a puppet of the west.”
Indeed, the words of all three men have since been used on Russian television to justify the invasion of Ukraine.
It is shocking but not unsurprising given the words of Trump and his acolytes that a recent poll before the Russian invasion showed that more Republicans have a negative view of Biden than of Putin.
But as missiles fall on Ukraine, the base of the party’s support of Trump and Putin is not a good enough reason for Republican officials to continue their silence about Trump.
That can start with Zeldin and County Executive Bruce Blakeman, who served as the Nassau Republican Party’s liaison to the Trump campaign during the presidential election.
Blakeman and Zeldin took a step forward over the weekend by leading a rally in support of Ukraine and called for Biden to close a Russian compound in Glen Cove.
But at a time when Zelensky and others in Ukraine are risking their lives in the streets of Kyiv, Blakeman and Zeldin were silent about what Trump had said. That is not enough.
Blakeman and Zeldin need to denounce Trump for his support of Putin for what it is – un-American. They should also uphold the democratic values that Ukraine is fighting for by denouncing Trump’s attempt to overturn the presidential election by inciting hatred and intolerance.
Otherwise, their support of Ukraine rings hollow.
And their silence explains how it can happen here.