Donbas in the Oval – WSJ

Now we have 24-hour cable news, talk radio, blogs, Twitter, Substack. Today the cynical realities are flaunted where even distracted voters find it hard not to notice them. The postlapsarian knowledge of good and evil seeps into the minds of millions. And then there s Mr. Trump. He s this on-display world s peerless operator, finally calling an end to Friday s shouting match, saying it was great television.

That s how Mr. Trump is going to play it, without the standard encomiums to democracy or apple pie. He doesn t care what traditional opinion makers think and events have shown (so far) he doesn t need to care. Lo, it might even pay off for America if he can land a halfway decent Ukraine outcome, which I don t think Friday s installment did anything to make less likely.

Not that more is better. A large volume of today s Ukraine punditry, after all, doesn t really care about Ukraine. It doesn t think deeply about how to reach a tolerable outcome.

Many opinion mongers are merely servicing their brands. Everyone senses it. So while there s more punditry than ever, it means less than ever. Witness MSNBC begging the question by feeding its commentators the assumption that Mr. Trump betrays America by not granting Ukraine security guarantees. In fact, Mr. Trump would be overturning the policy of every president since George H.W. Bush, who urged Ukraine not to leave the Soviet Union.

And Mr. Trump? His cynicism will be congruent with his times and needs. He wants a peace that will keep at least until he s out of office. He wants a Nobel Prize. And, of course, the U.S. must make a profit. His rift with Europe is ripe to be repaired just as quickly as he sees an attractive offer on the table. Then expect a sequel to his first term when he announced himself a NATO fan after noting spending increases he could take credit for.

Most of all, Mr. Trump knows the U.S. could yet be pulled into a war over Ukraine, which also came across in Friday s scrum. This is a powerful motivator to any president.

So enjoy the show. Coming is a landmark test of democratic policy-making, problem-solving and, frankly, open-air policy cynicism in our new media age. It s an experiment worth watching closely.

via www.wsj.com

Holman Jenkins. So far the only guy who is making any sense.

This is like watching the sausage getting made where you start with whatever that talking pig is called from Charlotte’s Web.