you think i'm being facetious?

so, for a while the late romans had these bulgars, initially a turkic tribe, sitting on their border, who were a threat to their well-being. unruly bulgarian barbarians could interrupt trade routes, or even threaten civilians around the danube. but, there were always barbarians in this region, and the romans learned that you have to just fucking deal with it.

so, what they did was study the tribal configurations and try to find ways to divide and conquer the barbarians, so they would fight against each other, instead. and, they learned a valuable lesson - there was a powerful nation to the north of the bulgars, namely the rus, that could be brought into imperial service.

so, this is what they did, for hundreds of years - whenever the bulgars got restless, they'd send money to the rus, who would threaten the bulgars from the north. this drew them away from the danube, thereby securing the roman areas.

in the mean time, they would send emissaries to the bulgar areas in an attempt to civilize them. and, over time, the bulgars would be romanicized, christianized and even slavicized, which brought them into the empire. yet, as had happened for centuries, they were merely replaced by a new barbarian threat, the moment they were assimilated. so it goes.

this barbarian management strategy is actually what led to the alliance between the rus and the romans, which is arguably still the dominant geopolitical reality in the region, today.

trump is an idiot, we'll agree on that point. but, be careful who you're calling ignorant. you might see that backfire.

the liberals are supposed to do better than this