Clearing up a question

     I didn't want to give away the topic of today's post too quickly.  There is an old saying, "Tell me who your friends are and I will tell you who you are."  You can also add that you can know a lot about someone by their enemies.  The question to which I referred in the subject of this post is "Why is Trump so unwilling to criticize the Russians, at times even being complementary and seem to be so critical of our Western allies?"  One obvious answer could be his known financial ties to Russians but I would pose something more fundamental.  His authoritarian tendencies may make it easier for him to deal with others who share his authoritarian tendencies then with those who value more democratic beliefs like our Western allies.  Listen to this CNN exchange.  And this how Trump praised the Philippine President who has conducted a bloodbath in his country.  Here is how Trump speaks about the leader of the largest Western European democracy.
       Some may be surprised that a capitalist business man could be so complimentary of a Communist leader.  Trump and Putin's authoritarian beliefs are a stronger tie than their different economic beliefs.  The strong leadership shown by authoritarian dictators, even those who kill their opponents, seems to  be something that Trump admires.  Extremists from both the Right and the Left seem to have strong authoritarian tendencies.  The violent means are always justified to reach their ends.  Being able to reach compromise and seeing other people's needs seems to be foreign to Trump and Putin.  When Trump calls any media that disagrees with him as "fake news" that should raise concerns about his belief in our democratic ideals.  We already know he would prefer to do business in the undemocratic Russia than deal with those who oppose him in a Western democracy.