Things are taking a dark turn for Vladimir Putin

| 9:00 pm EDT June 17, 2021
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It was pretty stunning that Vladimir Putin chose to use an international summit as an opportunity to try to abolish happiness. He actually tried to convince us we’re all just as hopeless as he is of ever finding happiness in this world. I can see this working on some Russians, Vladimir, but if you think it’s going to work on the rest of us, you are sorely mistaken.

Putin claimed there is no happiness in life — only a mirage on the horizon. Some translators said Putin attributed his claims to Leo Tolstoy. On MSNBC’s “The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell” Wednesday, O’Donnell said the closest Tolstoy line he could find was in “War and Peace,” where Tolstoy wrote, “One must believe in the possibility of happiness in order to be happy. And I now believe in it. Let the dead bury the dead. But while I’m alive, I must be happy.” This is quite a bit different than the message of hopelessness conveyed by Putin. But as a dictator, nothing will ever be enough to make Putin happy — something he and Trump have a great deal in common.

This is likely a line Putin feeds the Russian people as an excuse for their unhappiness — so obviously and largely due to Putin and the other rulers they have been forced to endure. He probably thinks he could rule all of us with such propaganda, but doesn’t live in reality any more than Trump does.

As bad as Putin is, I still think Trump claiming he is our only hope (when he is anything but) is worse than Putin telling us we’re all hopeless, since so many Americans actually believe Trump. But those who still support Trump are more unAmericans than American. I never thought I would say such a thing, since Trumpsters have often accused me of being unAmerican, which I take personally and find to be very hurtful. But according to MSNBC reporting, a recent poll showed Trump supporters approve of Putin significantly more than President Biden and other democratically-elected leaders, and that is just about as unAmerican as you can get.

I will never get over the fact that so many Trumpsters actually think they would prefer authoritarian rule, or have been bamboozled into believing everyone against Trump is antidemocratic and unAmerican. They must think they are the most unhappy of all, but they are just spoiled brats.