FDR's decision to side with Britain and not the Nazis gave Americans a country where freedom could thrive; Trump and Putin seem determined to undo all of that

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“Imagine if in 1943 FDR had decided that the U.S. would stop helping Britain and instead would side with the Third Reich. That’s a bit like what President Trump is now doing by cozying up to Russia as it tries to destroy Ukraine. Utterly shameful. A humiliating moment for the U.S.”—Nicholas Kristof, opinion columnist, New York Times

Kristof, one of the most prominent editorial voices in America, has created a hypothetical that raises harrowing implications many Americans probably have never even imagined. I know I haven't, and perhaps that's because the proposed scenario is so frightening that it is almost beyond the imagination. Why is that? My best guess is that, for those of us born in the post-World War II era, it suggests an upending of the only reality we have ever known. 

It becomes even more disturbing when Kristof suggests something similar is going on now, thanks to President Donald Trump and his new bestie, Vladimir Putin. 

This all comes to mind because I just visited the Horton-Kaiser Report, where Charles Kaiser analyzes the Kristof scenario. I started this endeavor with the hope Kaiser would write something that might ease my scrambled psyche, at least a little. Instead, he took the idea a step further, concluding that Trump's actions were more than "a bit" like the imagined Franklin D. Roosevelt switcheroo of 1943. 

What do I mean? Let's take a look at Kaiser's piece under the headline "Score one for Nick Kristof." In his first sentence, Kaiser makes it clear that, in his view, Kristof did not go far enough in comparing Trump's actions of today to a nightmarish revision of the 20th century, one that would overturn what veteran journalist Tom Nichols has called "the Western order, the most successful -- and powerful security arrangement in human history."

In other words, Trump isn't engaging in minor tampering, making a few tweaks. He seems determined to undermine a setup that, rightly or wrongly, gave many Americans the sense that they came of age in a relatively safe world. Now, it seems, Trump and Putin want to ensure future generations never know a remotely safe world.

Let's return to Charles Kaiser's piece, where we learn that, if you and I think Trump is dreadful (and I hope we all do), Kaiser apparently thinks he is worse, writing:

Actually, it (what Kristof envisions) is exactly what Trump is doing right now. His decision to block missile shipments to Ukraine at the exact moment when Russia was losing its ghastly war is more shameful and more shameless than any other presidential act in my lifetime.

It’s also the most blatant confirmation yet of the thesis of David Corn’s essential new book, How Russia Won: Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and the Fight for America. The blood of all Ukrainians is on the hands of every Republican senator and congressman who remains silent in the face of their president’s extraordinary treason.