Maybe Republicans don't fear Russia, but Trump needs to step up

"All, all had gone wrong for the president of the United States
And not from evil intentions.
But from good intentions, foolishly applied.
And so America in her turn learned the lesson:
Great states are brought down, great nations are humbled, great dreams are destroyed.
It can happen here.
No one had ever really believed it.
Until now."

-- ALLEN DRURY, 1973

One of the best political series of the Cold War era was Allen Drury's six-book opus that began with "Advise and Consent" and ended with "The Promise of Joy." Drury's narrative deals with the battle between those who believed the best way to maintain peace with the Soviet Union was to stand tough and those who thought finding areas of cooperation was best.

Nikita Khrushchev

It was strange. The first book in the series won the Pulitzer Prize and was made into a big budget film starring actors like Henry Fonda, Charles Laughton and Walter Pidgeon. The book and movie, set in a parallel Washington to the Eisenhower Era, has Fonda's character as a liberal nominee for Secretary of State who had flirted with communism in his younger days.

Throughout the '50s and '60s and even into the '70s, the one thing you could count on from Republicans was that they hated Russia.

In fact, they were every bit as consistent in that position as Republicans are these days about tax cuts for the very wealthy. The one thing that has happened that would surprise that earlier generation is that when it comes to Russians, Republicans have become very pragmatic.

When Russian leader Vladimir Putin started complimenting Donald Trump earlier this year, and when Trump began making remarks about NATO being outmoded or not opposing Russia if Putin decided to take back the Ukraine, one might have expected conservatives to be in an uproar.

A few were.

Most weren't.

Conservatives no longer seem to see Russia as our main enemy. They no longer seem to see radical Islam as our main enemy. Who's the enemy? Those godless liberals.

Sixty years ago, in a very different America, probably 90 percent of the people fit within five degrees or so to the left or right of moderation. Yes, there were the nuts who thought President Eisenhower was a Communist dupe, and there were those who thought the government should have a cradle-to-grave role in taking care of the people.

Most people were in the middle, though. Most people thought that while it was wrong for government to play no role in our lives, it was equally wrong for government to take charge of everything. Ike probably summed it up best.

"The extremes, right and left, are in the gutters."

But at some point we reached a point where Grantland Rice's famous comment was no longer seen as true. When the One Great Scorer came to write against your name, it no longer mattered how you played the game. What mattered -- the only thing that mattered -- was whether you won or lost.

So just as President Edward M. Jason in Drury's "Come Nineveh Come Tyre" lost the country to an imperialist USSR by believing that hey, we're all brothers and we all want peace, Republicans in the real world have got us circling the drain on our way to "Soylent Green" or "Zardoz" or some other corporate-run dystopia.

First Ronald Reagan said that people only went into government if they couldn't succeed in business.

Then people voted for George W. Bush because they would rather have a beer with him than with Al Gore.

Then the unthinkable happened.

Republicans, the former Cold Warriors, wanted to win so badly that they supported a candidate who was not only buddy buddy with Putin but who also probably has all sorts of business connections with Russia. I say probably because Trump has gone out of his way to prevent the American people from learning anything about his finances.

I think we should trust him, because he was an impeccable reputation for honesty and ...

Wow, I think my mind just got hacked.

Seriously, there are people trying to block Trump's election when the Electoral College votes next week. Barring some serious revelations about Russia's role in the election, I think the EC will certify his election.

However ...

I think there are still things we need to know about Trump and his businesses. Let a reputable accounting firm -- maybe the guys who keep the Oscar voting secret -- have complete and total access to Trump's records and books. The only purpose would be to identify foreign investments and particularly foreign debts that might cause problems for the country.

It's a step he really needs to take.

If he's going to be president, the country really has to be able to trust him.