JONATHAN SIGRIST: The United States and the Russian Federation have a
long history of mutual hostility – famously dividing the East and West
into a bipolar world during the Cold War – and the vision of Russia is
among many Americans still that of the Soviet bad guys. The Cold War was
not a pleasant time for many obvious reasons, but in the minds of the
American left, the McCarthy era is one that still sticks, and its
apparent return is something that seems to concern only a minority on
the left – including myself.
