On April 13, the United States led an attack on Syria in response to a chemical attack allegedly committed by the Syrian government.

Many American politicians in response to the renewed volley have brought up the legality of the president waging war without Congress's declaration. For example, Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has explicitly explained via Twitter that the airstrikes were "illegal and unauthorized."

Even before the airstrikes, others were also questioning the merits of continuing the war in Syria. Tomi Lahren, a right wing political commentator, disagreed with President Trump for likely the first time. She lamented the loss of Syrian civilians in the chemical attack, but Lahren also said that "we can't even win a war where we don't know what victory looks like."

While some choose to focus on the legality or the feasibility of continued attacks, other political figures have linked the attacks to an FBI investigation on the involvement of the Russian government in the 2016 presidential election. So-called "Resistance Leader" Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has been known to do just this in the past, and this situation was no different. Pelosi, the minority leader of the supposedly anti-war party in America, called on Trump to "hold Putin accountable" following the attack in Syria.

This was hardly a condemnation of the president's actions but instead a cry for more war and more civilian casualties.

Since President Trump has been elected to office, the attitudes towards United States-Russia relations have flipped. Once upon a time, the Obama administration and Democrats overall were continuing to mend bridges burnt during the 20th century. We saw the Iran Deal, a commitment to a more amicable situation with a Russian ally. On the other side of the aisle, Republicans continued to be characteristically hawkish and capitalist-centered.

The Russiagate scandal has flipped this situation.

The Democrats within the supposed resistance to Trump have not aligned themselves for positive ideas but instead simply to be the balance and counter to anything Trump favors. Instead of running on a policy proposal, such as gun reform or universal healthcare, Democrats have pledged to only be anti-Trump. Not only is this a mistake going into midterm elections (despite apparent blue leads due to disastrous policies pushed by the right), but this also sets the stage for continued Cold War ideals in the Democratic party.

Rachel Maddow, center-left MSNBC news host, is likely one of the top advocates of these alienating ideals.

Aaron Maté of The Intercept reported on an analysis of The Rachel Maddow Show for a one month period. Russia was the main topic (not including times where Maddow merely mentioned Russia) no less than 53 percent of the time, more than all other topics combined. With the recent attacks on Syria, Maddow has nothing to comment via Twitter. A quick search of her Twitter page has zero mentions of Syria.

But she has tweeted over 12 times since the beginning of April about the Mueller investigation.

On MSNBC, Maddow claimed that there is a "perception" that the strikes were inconsequential and their effectiveness were impacted by his scandals back home. Not only do these strikes hold little to no meaning in United States-Russia relations to Maddow, but she, like Pelosi, seems to think that attacks against Russian allies are not enough to distance the president and Russia. Between Rachel Maddow and Nancy Pelosi, it's hard to find the difference in the policies advocated by the war hawks of either party.

The FBI investigation plaguing America for the past year has led to top Democratic officials and advocates reverting back to the propaganda and attitudes of the Cold War.