Bloomberg: The Winning Horse

Washington Post columnist Josh Rogin has criticized Democratic presidential hopeful Mike Bloomberg for comparing the U.S. annexation of the Mexican territories of Texas and California with the Russian takeover of Crimea.

In February 2015, Bloomberg said at the Aspen Institute that Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and annexation of Crimea were equivalent to what the United States did to Mexico.

“…nobody thinks that Russia should be in the Ukraine and trying to take land in an independent sovereign country,” the multimillionaire said.

“Except,” Bloomberg added, “if you really think about it, what would America do if we had a contiguous country where a lot of people in that country wanted to be Americans. Texas and California ring a bell? We just went and took it. I’m not suggesting that Putin’s doing a good thing or that it should be allowed. But we did this. That was 200 years ago, but we did it.”

The journalist criticized the fact that “[i]t doesn’t appear to occur to Bloomberg that there are several important differences between Russia sending little green men into Crimea to steal part of Ukraine’s democracy in 2014 versus the United States annexing California after the Mexican-American War of 1846-1848.

“American expansion in the 19th century fit (sadly) international norms of behavior at the time. By contrast, Russia’s attack on Ukraine represented a stark departure from an international order that had remained intact since the end of World War II,” Rogin said.

The U.S. political and intellectual elite think that their country is superior to others. They do not accept that recent Russian expansionism is comparable to past Yankee imperialism.

Bloomberg and Rogin are wrong for a variety of reasons.

The ex-mayor of New York has been repeating the history of Texas independence written by U.S. authors: the Texans became independent from the despotic Mexican government because “they wanted to become Americans” when in reality, they were American citizens established in Texas with permission from Mexico.

Journalist Rogin justifies the abuses of power by the United States against its southern neighbor as “the international norms of behavior at the time.” But America’s most revered president, Abraham Lincoln, then a congressman, condemned the U.S. invasion of Mexico.

The statements about our country by the ex-mayor of New York are relevant because of the impact they could have on U.S. foreign policy, should he end up in the White House.

Bloomberg came late to the fight for the presidential nomination of the Democratic Party, mired in uncertainty and divided between radicals and moderates, but his popularity rose after he spent $300 million on television and social media.

He beat out Sen. Elizabeth Warren for third place among voters registered for the Democratic primaries in 2020, according to a national Reuters/Ipsos poll.

And Bloomberg has already registered for the primary elections beginning Mar. 3 and could become the “winning horse.” There is a reason Donald Trump has called him a “racist,” and Bernie Sanders has accused him of believing that he can “buy the election.”

We will see if the millions of dollars and Bloomberg’s centrism can defeat the other Democrats — and Trump.