Anti-NATO campaigner suddenly realises why countries join NATO
Things got awkward on the New Yorker Radio Hour.
Megan Romer, co-chair of the Democratic Socialists of America, was interviewed by David Remnick on the New Yorker Radio Hour this week.
Romer got a bit stuck on several questions. Especially this one:
Some background.
The DSA advocates for a world in which ordinary working people have full control over their own society and future.
Terms and conditions apply though. Offer not valid in Eastern Europe.
Because the DSA also has a weirdly specific obsession with opposing security alliances for smaller European democracies that happen to border Russia.
At the real core of their worldview is the belief that Americans are solely responsible for everything, everywhere, all at once.
“We created Putin,” she has previously said. In fact, “damn near every supervillain of the past 50 years was our creation.”
The goal of US foreign policy therefore should be simply to “not create more Putins”, according to Romer.
It’s a comforting delusion because it offers an easy answer for every complex problem. Just do nothing.
Based on that logic, the DSA believes that Russia-Ukraine can be solved by not supporting Ukraine and they contribute to that by simply repeating Russian propaganda.
Romer attempted to swerve criticism on The New Yorker Radio Hour, however, by demonstrating she can criticise Russia too.
Russia is a threat to its neighbours because it's “right wing” and “hyper capitalist”, Romer explains, apparently unaware that Russia has also been left wing and not much different.
Remnik asks in response: "Isn’t this precisely why those countries [facing Russian aggression] wanted to join NATO?"
In the next excruciating few seconds, we see Romer briefly ponder the idea that people in other countries also have agency and also like security.
Afterall, Europe’s own social democrats have had no problem supporting NATO since its founding. Both Finland and Sweden had social democrat-led governments when they initiated their process to join NATO.
Because cooperation between like-minded democracies is better for everyone, everywhere, regardless of where we all fit on the horseshoe spectrum of politics.
