Do ordinary Americans take seriously the Left’s Russia hysteria?

After today’s meeting between Trump and Putin, Leftists have ratcheted their Russia hysteria up to level 12 out of 10. Do ordinary Americans care?

Trump Putin RussiaI’m so old I can remember when Teddy Kennedy, the revered lion of the Senate, during the height of the Cold War asked the Soviets to intervene in the 1984 presidential election.

I’m so old I can remember when Democrats constantly castigated conservatives for being paranoid about Soviet interference into world and American affairs.

I’m so old I can remember when Democrats and their fellow travelers brushed off stories about Soviet atrocities as mere Cold War propaganda.

I’m so old I can remember when we were told Communism is just another type of government and we should be more open to the Soviets and that the Cold War was a sorry relic of a fascist American past.

I’m so old I can remember when Obama sent Hillary Clinton off to meet the Russians with a big red reset button.

I’m so old I can remember when Barack Obama met with Putin and had these nice things to say:

“I’m aware of not only the extraordinary work that you’ve done on behalf of the Russian people … as president, but in your current role as prime minister,” Obama said during a breakfast meeting at Putin’s country home on the outskirts of Moscow. “We think there’s an excellent opportunity to put U.S.-Russian relations on a much stronger footing.”

I’m so old I can remember when Hillary authorized selling 20% of America’s uranium to a Russian oligarch close to Vladimir Putin in exchange for a massive cash infusion into her private slush fund.

I’m so old I can remember when Mitt Romney said Russia was our greatest geopolitical foe and President Obama sneeringly replied that “the 1980s are now calling to ask for their foreign policy back. Because the Cold War has been over for 20 years.”

I’m so old I can remember when Barack Obama, during a meeting with outgoing Russian President Medvedev, was caught on a hot mic asking that Medvedev tell incoming President Putin that Putin needed to “give me space” so Obama could betray former Soviet bloc countries on missile defense and promised “more flexibility” after the 2012 election.

I’m so old I can remember when Barack Obama, having walked back his famous “red line” in Syria, handed Syria over to the Russians in order to — ahem! — save face.

I’m so old I can remember when Barack Obama became remarkably passive after Putin invaded Crimea, effectively giving Putin a pass for doing so and enabling Russia to remain there to this day.

I’m so old I can remember that the DNC, after being hacked, refused to turn its server over to law enforcement. It’s like someone having their house robbed, calling the police and then saying, “But under no circumstances are you allow to get anywhere near to the house to investigate.” You’ll pardon me, therefore, if I find Mueller’s indictment of a bunch of Russians he can never extradite to be a meaningless bit of Kabuki theater.

I’m so old I can remember that, when Barack Obama learned that the Russians were (as usual) trying to game the American Presidential election, he chose to do nothing lest doing something interfere with Hillary’s inevitable coronation — an issue he only took seriously when Hillary lost and the entire Democrat party pivoted to undermining the election.

I’m so old I can remember learning over the past year and a half that Hillary’s campaign worked closely with Russian operatives in an effort to undermine Trump both before and after the election.

I’m so old I can remember that President Trump, during the year and a half of his administration, has been trashing Russia’s economy, which is primarily reliant upon oil, by (a) encouraging fracking and other oil production in America and (b) just recently castigating Germany for demanding that American’s fund Europe’s NATO defense, even as Germany hands billions to the Russians for oil.

I’m so old that I can remember that Putin is precisely the same oligarch he was during Obama’s administration — meddling in the Middle East, playing Loki in the American elections, murdering reporters and rivals, and generally stirring the pot — with no change whatsoever in his conduct from Obama to Trump.

So I have to ask:

What makes Putin more dangerous today than he was yesterday?

What particular policy is Putin pursuing today that’s any worse than during the Obama administration, when Obama promised flexibility, a reset, sold uranium, handed over the Middle East, abandoned Syria, etc.?

Is Putin worse than the Soviets were during the height of the Cold War, when Kennedy (the lion of the Senate) sought their aid?

Is there anything wrong, given that we’re not in a Cold War anymore, for Trump to find common ground with Putin in order to negotiate deals that benefit the U.S.? Negotiations don’t work if you start off by telling your negotiating partner he’s an evil monster.

You’ll therefore have to pardon me if I ignore the media’s level 12 hysteria about Trump’s meeting today with Russia (as well as some conservative hysteria about Trump’s efforts to create a working negotiation) and ask, as I did in my post title, whether ordinary Americans who are not in thrall to the New York Times and CNN are as calm as I am or as hysterical as the Leftists are?