Hashtag Diplomacy! Another Winner for the State Department

April 25, 2014

Hashtag Diplomacy! Another Winner for the State Department

by Deanna Fisher in Headlines 8 Comments

Secretary of State Kerry sounded a warning yesterday – not that anyone who was paying attention needed one. Russia is still making quite a show of power on Ukraine’s borders, engaging in military exercises and completely ignoring last week’s Geneva Agreement. Naturally, Russia is pointing its fingers at Ukraine, citing the shooting of pro-Russian separatists at a checkpoint near Sloviansk last Sunday.

This entire situation is a disaster, and the Obama administration and its State Department are just watching Putin eat their lunches in eastern Europe.

But, never fear! State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki has a powerful weapon up her sleeve – the almighty Twitter hashtag!

No, really. Almost one month ago, Psaki tweeted this from her official State Department account:

To echo @BarackObama today-proud to stand #UnitedForUkraine World should stand together with one voice pic.twitter.com/VeMt578UdY

— John Kirby (@statedeptspox) March 26, 2014

And then yesterday, she tweeted out a callback to her previous hashtag, invoking the almighty power and promise of… the hashtag.

The world stands #UnitedforUkraine. Let’s hope that the #Kremlin & @mfa_russia will live by the promise of hashtag

— John Kirby (@statedeptspox) April 24, 2014

I want to know where all the grown-ups have gone to, and I’m not the only one.

If there was any doubt that Putin and Lavrov are mocking the United States, both behind closed doors and with their continued actions on the Russia-Ukraine border, the stupidity of the official State Department spokeswoman asking the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to “live by the promise of hashtag” should ensure that the mockery is only going to get worse.

The time for being all cutesy and trendy with our social media diplomacy is long since past. Can you even imagine John F. Kennedy or Ronald Reagan’s State Department officials dealing with their Soviet counterparts with tweets and hashtags? This is beyond stupid. It is borderline insane. It is obvious that Putin is trying to reconstitute as much of the former Soviet empire as the West will let him get away with. Unfortunately, we have no adults in charge who are willing to tell this bully “no.”

Unless Obama and Kerry decide to grow backbones and deal like adults with Putin, our entire foreign policy is just going to be a hashtag on the ash heap of history. Sadly, I’m not holding my breath.

hashtag Jen Psaki john kerry Obama Administration Russia State Department twitter Ukraine Vladimir Putin

Written by Deanna Fisher

8 Comments

Merle says:

April 25, 2014 at 8:32 am

Where is Teddy Roosevelt when we need him?

Merle

Reply
Jodi says:

April 25, 2014 at 10:36 am

I have never been more embarrassed for our country than I am under the current set of federal fools. Juvenile, weak-assed foreign policy.

Oh, geez, I forgot the hashtag.

Reply
- Gothguy says:
  
  April 25, 2014 at 11:30 am
  
  Jodi…”Oh, geez, I forgot the hashtag.”
  
  So did Putin and Lavrov.
  
  Reply
  - Jodi says:
    
    April 25, 2014 at 11:39 am
    
    #FecklessForeignPolicy
    
    There. Fixed.
    
    Reply
    - Gothguy says:
      
      April 25, 2014 at 11:50 am
      
      Works for me!
      
      Reply
Gothguy says:

April 25, 2014 at 11:29 am

If it wasn’t so pathetic and ineffectual, it would be a comedy sketch! But, this is what happens when you have an administration that solely relies on rhetoric and speeches, rather than actions. This is also what happens when you put members of the college faculty lounge in positions that require actual leadership versus theories and suppositions.

To understand Putin and Russia, all one has to do is to study Russian history, especially post Tsarist Russian history, and one could see what Putin was going to do a mile away.

But, hey, what do us Conservatives know…according to the left, we are merely knuckle dragging reprobates who aren’t enlightened enough to understand the leftist liberal elites.

Reply