I have no interest in building up China.
Maybe you don’t, but our leaders do. And there’s a pattern to their behavior.
If our leaders were really committed to America being a beacon of freedom, and they were proud of the Puritan values that led the Founders to want to create a free nation, then one would think that their reaction to the fall of the Iron Curtain would be filled with plaudits for the power and righteousness of religious faith, and it’s ability to shake off the shackles of slavery. You’d think it would animate our foreign policy.
But instead, the rejuvenated religiosity of Eastern Europe is viewed, by many of the very same people who think the Ukraine/Russia war is the great struggle of our time, as troubling and dangerous.
They frown when soccer teams from Serbia refuse to go along with LGBT worship. They frown when Hungary gives tax breaks and other perks to young couples who have several kids. They frown when many of these countries voice opposition to mass immigration.
They hate Slavic Flyover country as much as they hate Flyover country here.
Now contrast that with their supposed rationale for why we should have opened up trade with China. They talked as though money, goods, and pop/fashion culture alone would inspire democratization.
They knew it was BS. It was just a line to sell us to go along with it.
But the fact that they could look at us with a straight face, and make a pitch for trying to bring democracy to China, with zero mention of the role that religious faith played in liberating Eastern Europe, and instead, make the case that designer clothes and a unit in a modern apartment building would inspire people to bring down the CCP, is consistent with both the contempt they have for faith and faith based values, and the unhealthy importance they place on materialism.
You can have your own reasons for hating Putin. But you can be sure our leaders hate him for the same reason they hate those Serbian soccer teams refusing to take the knee for trannies.
I’m sure there are plenty of good religious Christians in Ukraine. But their country has been taken over as a proxy for the worst elements of the modern West.