Whose face is red now?

My, how the cycle of political realities changes colors. During the Cold War red was the color ascribed primarily to the Soviet Union in particular, to its allies in general, and dimmed down to “pink” for any person, or entity, deemed sympathetic to any of the above. Today, states that vote primarily Republican are known as “Red States.”

Today, we have a president who can’t seem to say enough good things about the Russian despot Vladimir Putin, but has no problem insulting the leader of our longtime ally Australia.

Today, we have an administration that chose for national security adviser a man who was receiving over a half a million dollars from a foreign country (Turkey) without having declared himself a foreign agent as is required.

Today, our own intelligence agencies say that Russia did attempt to interfere in our presidential election. Yet the Republican chairs of their respective intelligence committees (House and Senate), along with the U.S. attorney general (a supporter of Trump during the campaign) were not willing to agree with the public outcry asking for an independent prosecutor to investigate the extent to which the Russians carried this out, and with whom they may have collaborated. Guess they aren’t concerned that the public they are pledged to serve prefers that the investigation have no suspicion of bias.

Makes one wonder if the GOP has somehow morphed itself into a crimson-coated “Genuflecting Order of Putinites.”

—Alan Solum

Somers