[asciiresort]

> This weakness is well understood by enemies like Russia’s Vladimir Putin, who has done everything he can to widen those divisions and has acted geopolitically at a moment when he thought the U.S. was too weak and self-preoccupied to respond effectively.

Not a fan of Putin, and I think the polarization is real, but then this should already be obvious to anyone whose not been asleep for the past few years.

Given the domain name includes the word persuasion, such a claim needs more substantiation, elaboration or citation. This feels like a student paper without much strong arguments beyond general hand wavy sentiments on the state of the union.