[View here as a Twitter thread]
3/ Recall, he was in the Oval Office on 5-10-17 when Trump bragged about firing Comey. newsweek.com/2017/06/30/spy… Wait. Wasn’t he also the guy Flynn was talking to a month before Trump took office when he was secretly negotiating with the Russians about the sanctions?
4/ Senator McCain has accused Rand of working for Putin: cnn.com/2017/03/16/pol… Russia state TV declared Rand a Russian “loyalist” because he voted against sanctions, supported Trump’s performance at Helsinki, etc:
5/There’s been much reporting that Trump & pals allowed Russian interference because they’re compromised & blackmailed. I’ve suggested also that the Fox-GOP has willingly teamed up with the Kremlin because they are ideologically aligned.
[I am interrupting this thread to say that the answers people are giving as to what Rand is doing in Moscow are creative and hilarious. Shoulda been a hashtag.]
6/ Both are true of course—the very fact that members of the Fox-GOP have worked with Russia gives the Russians blackmail material. But why use it on their allies? What I mean by “ideologically aligned” is the Fox-GOP and Kremlin share a worldview and ideals for government.
7/ Both believe the best form of government is one with power concentrated in the hands of a few (an oligarchy). Both believe diversity creates disorder and chaos, and is thus harmful. The GOP move toward Russia has been 40 years in the making.
8/ A big step toward Russia occurred when the radical right wing of the GOP declared itself ideologically pure and denounced GOP members who “compromised with liberals.” Refusal to compromise (my way or I set the place on fire) = authoritarianism.
9/ It is not a coincidence that the GOP’s ideological move toward Kremlin corresponded with the radicalization of the NRA, and Russians infiltrating and pouring money into the NRA. We may be surprised how many people agree with this:
10/ I’ve also argued against the media cartoon image of Trump as a bumbling and incompetent fool. Consider this: if Trump’s goal is move America toward a Putin-style oligarchy, he is doing everything right — and that includes what Trump’s outraged critics see as corruption.
11/ In other words, don’t engage in the following fantasy: Once word goes out that Trump coordinated with Russia to fix the election, Trump will be driven from office by an outraged population. I’m not saying he won’t be. I’m suggesting that it may not be so easy.
12/ We are certainly approaching a final showdown: Are we a liberal democracy* aligned with Europe? Or are we an authoritarian oligarchy aligned with Russia? *liberal democracy = representative government with elected officials constrained by rule of law (classical liberalism).
