You assume both that they would have realized the possibility of far reaching, unintended consequences, and that they would have let concerns about those consequences keep them jumping on the latest bandwagon.
I am somewhat skeptical about the first, and very skeptical about the latter. The only consequences most "leaders" seem able to discern are the career and social consequences of not jumping on the bandwagon. They are oblivious to the possibility that there may be something more at stake.
Exactlty. The problem is the system where we keep 10% for the big guy. Biden is not the only big guy on the take. He is not even the prinicpal big guy. He gets his 10% because he is a useful idiot for all the other big guys on the take.
Everywhere I look every decision is transactional. Not what is good for the country or the world, but where do I get my 10%. And so our empire of the 10%'ers looking for the next transaction while supportive of every kind of excess and perversion, has run smack into other worlds with different world views. Some transactional Ukrainians hitched their wagon to our transactionalists. Ukraine is getting wrecked as a consequence. It's very sad.
Anyone with a map, a sense of morality and a sense of history could see it coming.