HUGE TEAMS OF DIPLOMATS

David Remnick’s interview with DSA co-chair Megan Romer has to be seen to be believed:

Ukraine and its supporters *are* figuring out how to negotiate with Russia. Russia started and perpetuates the war in pursuit of conquest, and rejects good faith diplomacy. Raising the cost for Russia might get them to negotiate. A 6th year of blaming Russian aggression on anyone but Russia won’t.

[image or embed]— Nicholas Grossman (@nicholasgrossman.bsky.social) 7:39 PM · Aug 10, 2026

How, after over five years of war and 1.5 years of the second Trump term—with numerous bilateral and multilateral meetings about the war in Ukraine, welcoming Putin to a summit in Alaska, berating Zelensky, etc.—can anyone think diplomacy hasn’t been tried because the US opposes it? HOW?!?— Nicholas Grossman (@nicholasgrossman.bsky.social) 7:41 PM · Aug 10, 2026

Romer isn’t some total nobody — she’s national co-chair of an increasingly influential organization within the Democratic Party. But still, this is worth highlighting because all of the Quincy Institute types — your Sams Moyn and Daniels Bessner and Glenns Greenwald Matts Taibbi and Tylers Austin Harper who ran interference for Trump by asserting that Biden was a warmonger for not wanting Putin to just overrun Ukraine — don’t have an argument any better than this even if they have learn to phrase it in ways that sound a little less baldly stupid. The argument is ultimately that there was an “end the war while taking away all of Ukranie’s negotiating leverage” Biden could have pushed and chose not to. This was an incredibly stupid argument to make in 2024, and it’s even more obviously stupid now. But as far as I can tell none of these people have revised their worldview at all, and I’m sure they’ll all be selling JD Vance or if necessary even Marco Rubio as the Peace Candidate in 2028.