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understands that you have to be strong, the way buyers are strong in the Persian rug markets.
    Taking a strong position in negotiations is not the same as provoking a war. “Peace through strength” is what won the cold war. Back when we had real leadership in this country, we faced down an empire with over thirty thousand nuclear weapons and brought it to its knees without firing a shot. We were able to do that not only because of what Ronald Reagan did, but what he didn’t do.
    One thing he didn’t do was make threats he wasn’t ready to back up. He didn’t go around the world drawing red lines, only to make this country a laughingstock when adversaries crossed them with impunity. Instead, he strengthened our military to a point where the Soviets couldn’t hope to keep up. He picked his battles, deploying troops only when communists attempted coups in the Western Hemisphere.
    Reagan constantly won the public relations battles with Mikhail Gorbachev. He famously said, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall,” while speaking to a cheering crowd in what was then West Berlin. I’ve often imagined him flashing that winning smile and saying, “You should have listened to me,” when the German people tore down the Berlin Wall themselves, marking the beginning of the end of the USSR.
    Ironically, Russian president Vladimir Putin has acted a lot more like Reagan than our own president has over the past several years. When Obama drew another of his red lines forBashar al-Assad in Syria over chemical weapons, it was Putin who prevented war and solved the problem with diplomacy. He worked with his ally, instead of undermining her, and persuaded the Syrian government to hand over all of its chemical weapons.
    Whether you like him or not, Putin is another example of a real leader who puts the interests of his people first and leads with strength and restraint. He’s shown the most restraint in dealing with the Obama administration, which has done nothing but provoke him.
    Russia’s interests don’t always coincide with America’s, but Putin understands his primary function as president. Is he a politician? Of course he is. But he never sells out his own people just to keep himself or his party in power. Maybe that’s one reason the Obama administration demonizes him so much. Just as Obama probably resents the comparison to Netanyahu, he may very well resent comparisons to the Russian president who has outclassed him so many times. Obama should be building a partnership with noncommunist Russia and taking a hard line with Iran and ISIS. Instead, he’s soft on Iran and ISIS and risking a disastrous war with Russia, which the United States could lose.
    Maybe it’s better that he’s ineffective at leading, since he’s trying to take America in completely the wrong direction. He doesn’t care about the best interests of the American people. He cares about destroying borders, language, and culture, and building his progressive utopia.
    Not acting in the interests of the people is really a problem with both parties. Sure, they disagree on a lot of things. But there is one thing more important to both parties than anything they disagree on with each other: staying in power. Theylove living high on our dime, and they try to do what they’re elected to do only when it doesn’t jeopardize their chances of keeping their cushy jobs.
    I’ll never forget a picture that appeared on the top of the
Drudge Report
back in early January. The Republicans had won the Senate the previous November and had just taken office that day. As of that day they controlled both houses of Congress, but do you know what picture Matt Drudge ran? It was John “Man-Tan” Boehner bear-hugging none other than the most despicable woman in American politics, Nancy Pelosi. It couldn’t have been more appropriate.
    What does this bear hug symbolize other than he did their bidding? He went to her, gave her a hug, and showed us all how much opposition there