There was a time when the release of a wrongfully-detained American citizen by an authoritarian enemy would have been greeted by the far right with flag-waving and cheers. That time has apparently passed.
Judging from the reaction of conservatives, the fact that Brittney Griner is: a) a lesbian; b) a supporter of Black Lives Matter (a loose, unorganized grouping of people some of whom advocate violence); c) not one of several supposedly more deserving Americans being held by Russia whose release in exchange for Russian arms trafficker Victor Bout was not offered; and/or d) was released as a result of negotiations by a Democratic administration, means that instead of being an occasion for celebration, her homecoming after incarceration for unknowingly violating a ridiculous Russian law against the possession of a non-psychoactive cannabis derivative duly prescribed by a doctor is an outrage.
Not sure whether Griner’s race or sexual orientation or political views make her less than a human being in the eyes of the MAGA crowd and maybe less of an American, or whether the absurdity of the law and the accidental character of Griner’s violation of it demands remorseless retribution in the minds of these people rather than serving as rather substantial mitigation. But the attitude of those who are unhappy about her release stinks. Yes, other Americans in Russian custody also deserve their freedom. But they were not the ones whose freedom was offered, and the mean-spiritedness of Americans who begrudge Griner her freedom makes me sick.
The reaction of so many on the far right to the Griner/Bout exchange is another example of the moral and philosophical perversity of what passes for conservatism these days. Coinciding as it does with a week in which conservatives either excused or minimized Donald Trump’s proposal that the Constitution be ignored if it serves a goal he regards as desirable, and I have to think that Bill Buckley and Barry Goldwater and Bob Taft are rolling like dervishes in their graves over what was a political movement based on ethics and even-handedness and reverence for that Constitution.
Watersblogged 