I’d have thought that much was obvious but evidently, not.

For those of you who seem perpetually confused, Volodymyr Zelenskyy is the duly elected president of Ukraine. I know, it’s hard to keep track sometimes but the US president is Donald Trump. Please make a note of it.

Sheesh! Sure, I’m being snarky as all get out but this has gotten to the point of absurdity. Honestly, I’m not sure why the heck so many Libertarians despise Zelenskyy so much. This started the instant we heard about the invasion in 2022. Maybe they blame him for the first impeachment since he was on the other end of the ‘perfect phone call’, I just don’t know. I suppose their isolationist, anti-foreign aid bent may be a large part of it.

Or maybe they just can’t stand short comedians who get elected in Eastern European nations. I just don’t get it.

The problem isn’t that they dislike Zelenskyy – I doubt he cares and I sure don’t. The problem is how badly it blinds them. Vance running his mouth in the now infamous Oval Office Meltdown had more to do with personal animosity than sound policy, made obvious in Vance’s condescension and rudeness.

Today, I saw a video from Valutainment that was the height of absurdity. Zelenskyy had made some comment on a news show that ‘Putin would die soon’. He implied that Putin was either old or sick. The host wondered if it was some veiled threat – fair enough, although I seriously doubt it – but then one of the regulars went off on a tangent about Zelenskyy doing this to try and derail the peace process.

Good grief. If that’s all it takes to derail this thing, there isn’t a real peace process. Nor is it likely to have been a veiled threat – Putin is young for an American, getting up there for a Russian and at right about the expiration date for a Russian leader. Only Malenkov and Gorbachev lived into their 80’s, neither having been in office for decades before they died.

Now, I had to actually go look that up – and dust off my spreadsheet skills. There’s a pic of the chart below and here’s the link to the main source. Yes, I know Malenkov is out of order. Yes, I know there’s a better function for age, but I wasn’t that interested in sharpening my nearly nonexistent spreadsheet skills by hunting it down.

Don’t say I never do research. All of that to prove one tiny point – Russian leaders don’t tend to live past their seventies. Now, all those college courses during the Cold War and an actual course in Russian History made me aware of that little fact where most Americans aren’t sure who Khrushchev was (he was the shoe guy*) let alone how many of them died fairly young.

Ukrainians, like Zelenskyy, on the other hand probably learned that stuff in grade school. What you learn in history class has a lot to do with where you were born. What the Valutainment guys had no clue about is probably fairly common knowledge to most Eastern Europeans. They might have to think about it a moment but many could probably figure it out.

Instead of a veiled threat, Zelenskyy was probably calling Putin old. Then he realized how it sounded and tried to clarify. English isn’t his first – or third – language so he didn’t do that very well. No, I’m not giving Zelenskyy a hard time – I’m pretty sure English is his fourth language and his English is a darn site better than my rusty German! But when you mess up in a non-native language it’s sometimes hard to recover. You try explaining why you said something stupid while trying to literally remember the words you need at the same time!

I’m not picking on the Valutainment guys – much – either. That kind of ungracious assumption about Zelenskyy is getting to be the norm for the libertarian wing of the Republican Party. Not all of the MAGA crowd is anti Ukraine. Despite what the media says, that group is fairly diverse politically running from conservative to right of center liberals.

So, what was Zelenskyy really up to? Shoring up his European support which would have been obvious if the guys had been willing to give Zelenskyy the benefit of any doubt at all. Like I said to begin with, Zelenskyy is president of Ukraine. Losing 20% of your sovereign territory to an invader is NOT the way to becoming a prosperous and democratic nation state. It’s the first step to being re-subjugated.

Neither you, nor the Valutainment guys, need agree with me. I’m describing how Zelenskyy, his country and most of Eastern Europe see the situation. Even assuming Zelenskyy were wrong and giving up all that territory, especially without hard security guarantees, really is best for Ukraine’s future, he doesn’t know or believe that. Like all the rest of us, he has to do the best he can with his best understanding.

Which means keeping as much aid flowing as possible and making sure that Europe will back Ukraine if America betrays Ukraine.

I know, a lot of Americans don’t see it that way. I’m not asking you to – I’m asking you to understand how Ukraine’s people and her president see it. They have everything to lose. They spent forty-five years as an unwilling part of the Soviet Union. They are not going to see a bad peace as a good deal.

And the people of Ukraine are the ones that Zelenskyy actually answers to. Ironically, the people who get so mad at Zelenskyy are usually mad because he’s doing his job. Zelenskyy’s job is to do what is best for Ukraine. He was not elected to make sure America could go peacefully into yet another idiotic isolationist phase.

America calls that shot, not Ukraine. If we decide to just take our ball and go home, that’s fine. We have that right.

Ukrainians have the right to see withdrawal of aid as a betrayal.

Obviously, I think we should maintain our aid – which, by the way, President Trump is presently doing – but even if you disagree, could we PLEASE stop being knee jerk stupid every time Zelenskyy says ‘boo’? We’re beginning to sound like Democrats!

Zelenskyy is just doing the job he was elected to do. The Ukrainian people, once it’s safe to do so, will decide how good a job he has done. That’s their right alone.

Look, you don’t have to like the guy. I can’t really say why, but he usually annoys me when he’s giving speeches. I could never listen to Rush Limbaugh on the radio for the same reason and I agreed with 90% of what he was saying. I have enough sense to pull a transcript when I want to know what either of them has said. Why? Because it’s the only way I can fairly evaluate what the man actually said.

My irritation is a personal problem that I have to work around. Think maybe some of the hatred leveled at Zelenskyy might be in the same vein? A personal over reaction that needs to be worked around and not spewed into the public square?

Take issue with what the guy says if you think he’s wrong. It was fair to question Zelenskyy’s comments about Putin. But don’t ascribe to malice what can easily be explained by stupidity. It’s always a bad plan.

Letting hate – or annoyance – blind us only makes the world a worse place. We have enough to clean up without making more, don’t you think?

Besides, as Americans, our job is to supervise President Donald Trump, the guy we elected. That’s shaping up to be a full time job as it is.

If we want a better world, we have to be smart about it. Letting emotion run wild only makes us stupid. Less knee jerk stupidity, more grace and a lot more common sense and we just might see this thing through to a peace plan that is worthy of the name.

Up to us.

* Khrushchev famously banged on the podium at the UN with his shoe. Look it up, Whippersnapper!

¹ Malenkov came after Stalin. Malenkov should be #4 and Khrushchev #5.

² Putin isn’t 1952 years old. That’s just the year of his birth. If you want his age, subtract 1952 from 2025. Whippersnapper.

³ Bonus points to those who knew Putin wasn’t a General Secretary!