I’m still out here camping in the desert, so I almost missed the meltdown on social media when members of the Republican Party basically took Putin’s side when Putin challenged Biden to a debate.
Yesterday I thought it was just a stupid troll when I told you about the person on my Twitter feed who said:
Well. Apparently, the troll was repeating Trump Jr. who said this:
A debate raged: Were the Republicans repeating Russian attacks on the American president, or were the Russians taking their cue from the Republicans. It doesn’t really matter, in some ways, right?
People on social media were asking (in tones of awe and shock) why the Republicans were taking Putin’s side against the American president.
I can answer that🙋♀️. You see, the modern Republican Party + Putin = true love because they have common goals.
For decades now, Russia has been “beckoning” to America’s far right wing, presenting Russia as the savior of white majority rule. “Beckoning,” by the way, is Yale professor Timothy Snyder’s word. He’s the scholar who has written about this.
This beckoning includes Russians infiltrating the NRA and helping radicalize the NRA as a right-wing paramilitary extremist group—but that’s a big topic for another post.
The Republican-Russia love affair has been evident for some time.
Putin’s regime, remember, is built on homophobia and fear of those who are different. As part of Putin’s rejection of all things communist, he embraced Christianity and aligned himself with American evangelicals.
Here is a timeline:
In 2013: Russia enacted anti-homosexual legislation.
British right-winger Katie Hopkins, in an article in which she was interviewed with her friend American right-winger Ann Coulter, said “Putin rocks.” Katie Hopkins then went on to praise Russia as being “untouched by the myth of multiculturalism and deranged diversity.
Talk show host Tucker Carlson said the U.S. should “rethink America’s alliances.” Tucker Carlson basically derided people who claimed that Russia was our enemy. Senator Rand Paul, who clearly has his own ties to Russia, agreed:
In the summer of 2018, Sen. Rand Paul went to Moscow to, quote, “open lines of communication.” He met with Russian leaders and invited them to the United States. Also in 2018, Guiliani attended a pro-Russia conference. Also in 2018, eight Republican leaders spent July 4th in Russia.
I’ll include one more example because it’s instructive. Paul Hasson, I don’t know if you remember him. He’s the guy who planned to mass murder liberals, talked of “Looking to Russia with hopeful eyes . . .”
Putin and America’s far right wing want the same things. Putin would like: Civil War in the U.S. The far right wing has long been talking of Civil War. Putin would like the U.S. to become a Russian style oligarchy. This is exactly what the modern Republicans want.
Putin entirely privatized the Russian government and put all that wealth into the hands of a few white men. Back under the communist regime, the government owned and controlled all the nation’s resources. What happened in the early 1990s, when the Communist regime crumbled, is that Russia adopted a democratic constitution—but before democracy could take root, there was a mad scramble to grab resources. Over a period of about 10 years, a few crooks seized control of Russia’s industries and resources. This gave them enormous wealth and eventually control of the government. There were elections, but they were just for show. The outcome was controlled by these bandits. Russia is now an oligarchy: Which means a few wealthy people control the nation’s industries and wealth, and the government, because when you have that kind of wealth, you can control the government.
This is exactly what the modern GOP wants. They want to privatize government functions and create the kind of income inequality that allows a few wealthy white men to control the nation’s resources. So they imitate Putin’s tactics. He’s their hero. Of course they side with Putin. They want the same things.
The Russia – Republican love affair has been conducted in open view.
Why, then, are people surprised?
For the past several years we’ve been hit with such a tsunami of spectacle and crisis that people can’t step back and assimilate what’s going on. I talked about Putin’s method of governing by crisis and spectacle. Trump created so much crisis and spectacle over the past 4 or 5 years that nobody could focus on the love affair between America’s right wing and Russian oligarchs—even though it was there all along in plain view.
What is happening is that Putin is leading the way toward the kind of society the Republicans want: An oligarchy in which government is privately owned and privately controlled
Sometimes I think we’re better off now that the GOP isn’t trying to hide what’s happening.
