The hostility between Truman and the left of his era, I argued a couple of months ago, parallels the current dynamic between Clinton and the Bernie Sanders movement today. The Trump-Russia scandal has activated that same left-wing impulse. The American far left during Trumans era, just like today, was not pro-Russia so much as it was anti-anti-Russia, and follows identical themes: Criticism of Russias domestic repression or aggressive foreign policy is merely a ploy to distract from and excuse Americas own failings, and provides dangerous support for American aggression, which could lead to war. So, just as the left of the '40s and '50s saw anti-Stalinism as an excuse for Jim Crow, a Glenn Greenwald today casts Russias human-rights record in an implausibly favorable light, and reflexively dismisses any contrary view as simple hypocrisy. When Russia menaces Ukraine, The Nation informs its audience that this is perfectly justifiable because Ukraine is not really a country at all.
Obviously, there are sound foreign-policy reasons for caution in American foreign policy toward Russia. Ukraine is not a NATO member, which explains why Russian incursions have not been met with a military response. The defining trait of the lefts anti-anti-Russia stance is not a reluctance to go to war, but an automatic habit of analyzing Russias behavior through the prism of American innocence and motivations, which are inevitably found wanting.
For whatever reason, Trump is the candidate who has given the most forthright expression to anti-anti-Russian beliefs of any candidate since circa 1948 Henry Wallace (just as he has given the most open expression of racist beliefs of any candidate since circa 1968 George Wallace). As the acrimony between Clinton-supporting liberals and their foes on the left spills out on the streets of Philadelphia, this historical irony is playing a minor role. The far lefts willingness to play into the opposing partys hands displays not only its continued disgust with the Democratic Partys nominee and Establishment, but a certain convergence of thought with the Republican nominee.
