Sober, secular and educated new residents to New Mexico can often be found painting the frames of their doors and windows a vivid bright blue. Having seen the habit practiced on the homes of locals, the newcomers invariably assume it’s a quaint regional decorative touch. They’re unaware of course that the locals have painted their frames the color of the Virgin, and the purpose isn’t decoration, but defense.
In superstitious, Catholic New Mexico, the Virgin’s color is believed to prevent the nomadic witches that prowl the streets at night from entering the house and murdering its inhabitants. Such is the manner in which old and very sinister traditions can be unknowingly perpetuated by people who have no interest in original intents.
Reflexive American and Russian antagonism can often seem to be following a similar habit. It doesn’t take much to bring it to the fore, but John McCain as an old Cold Warrior should know better than to provoke the Russians with half-considered plans. He’s a local here, unlike the Black Sabbath listening Dmitry Medvedev, who was an undergraduate during Perestroika.
I’m certainly no opponent of a Washington hardline against an increasingly hardline Moscow, but the unrealistic and emotional has never been good policy. And while it’s difficult to criticize an American political leader for highlighting Russia’s new authoritarianism, it’s also hard not to do so with McCain’s completely unrealizable G8 ejection plan that somewhat strangely was supposed to be dead, until McCain revived it.
In rehabilitating an old tradition, the Russians have overreacted and injected themselves into the presidential campaign. Vote Obama, they say:
The senior diplomat said the Kremlin wanted the U.S. electorate to “bear responsibility for its choice” in November. He said there was a risk of relations breaking down if matters were mishandled. “We could reach a moment,” he warned, “when we could afford to stop discussing the issues that the Americans are interested in.”
(WSJ via Robert Amsterdam)
and:
“We’re not interested in what McCain has to say. Let him become president first, then we’ll listen to him,” the diplomat told reporters.
(AFP via ThinkProgress)
Not very wise on their part either, I must say. Unlike in Russia, American elections are not predictable in advance. It’s entirely possible that John McCain will turn out to be president in January. With the prospect of such an antagonist facing them, it might have been advisable not to try to interfere clumsily in his election. A conciliatory call to discuss his concerns, should he be elected, would have gone further. Knowing McCain’s general inability to retain a consistent position and vulnerability to consultative attention of any kind, it would probably have resulted in his dropping his hostile policy proposals too.
But then again, if Ivan Krastev is right, Russia’s entire foreign policy is predicated on the bizarre assumption that the United States will soon unravel like the USSR. Which is another old tradition in Soviet foreign policy dreams, resuscitated by a government that has no good reason to believe in it.