THE real reason many American men don’t take seriously charges of pro-Trump Russian intervention in the election is not because there is no real evidence of intervention. No, the real reason is that they secretly envy Russian men who have submissive wives and are thus willing to let Putin do anything. Where Russia could not conquer through the Communist Party (it was really internationalists who tried to conquer via the Communist Party, but never mind), it will conquer through the reactionary white male.

This is the theory put forth by Vanity Fair writer Peter Savodnik, plumbing the depths of the Trump voter’s twisted psyche. Certainly, the appreciation for Russian women, compared to overworked American feminists who are conditioned to be angry, is real. But to Savodnik, who starts off by dismissing conspiracies and then unquestioningly accepts the fake-news, unsubstantiated conspiracy theory of Russia tipping the election, it is the clue to Trump’s victory via Russian hacking. “Angry white men” would let Putin do anything because he meets their deepest fantasies. No kidding. (What about all those angry white women who voted for Trump? We are left with no answer.)

Donald Trump’s choice of female partners reflects the yearnings and inclinations of these angry, white men—many of whom, one imagines, now comprise his base. Two of his three wives come from Slavic, ex-Communist countries. His shortest marriage was to an American. When Trump praises Putin, it’s probably not just because he wants to build a hotel in St. Petersburg or has an ex-campaign manager who allegedly made a bundle in Ukraine. It’s probably because Trump thinks, like many of his supporters may think, that the Russians get it.

Hey, maybe the Democratic Party should adopt this winning strategy and try to convert overworked, stressed, hyper-competitive feminists into the milk of human kindness. Could be worth it just to win.

In the future, one hopes, we’ll look back on the Age of Trump and wonder how so many Americans could have been so blinded by their politics or racialism that they were willing to look the other way when another country—the same country right-wingers once loved to hate—intervened in our democratic process. We’ll shake our heads and wonder aloud at the mindlessness, the treachery, and we’ll applaud ourselves for being better now, for knowing that this is not how a truly democratic people acts. Only an ailing people, a people burdened by a sick soul, could be blinded by a sort of, kind of, accidental Manchurian candidate who threatened the future of the republic. Now we know better. Now we’re not so vulnerable to the stupidity and vitriol of an earlier time, when Americans forgot who they were and allowed themselves to be co-opted—briefly, terrifyingly—by other people far away in a snowy dark.

Maybe in the future we will look back and be amazed that men had to go all the way to Russia to find feminine and submissive wives when there are now so many in America. Maybe there will be more people blinded by stupidity, not fewer.

— Comments —

Terry Morris writes:

Liberals need a new unprincipled exception to apply to their sacred “universal franchise,” lest democracy continue to produce unintended consequences and destroy itself by its own excesses.

Or maybe we just need to spend more money on education.

Pan Dora writes:

Sorry, Peter Savodnik ….. there is no evidence of any Russian “hack.”

Why don’t you take a look at yourselves? I seriously doubt Donald Trump’s choices in marriages had anywhere near the effect you imagine.

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