The Right Is Wrong On Ukraine
MAGA Fawning Over Russia Is Truly Hard To Watch
A bizarre love story is playing out on the fringes of the major American parties. For the duration of the Cold War, Russia, atop the USSR, was seen by the American right as “Godless Commies,” our rivals and enemies on the world stage. Communism was a threat both to the western democracies’ system of government as well as free market capitalism itself. If they were evil, then we were good, or so the simplified equation went. The fastest way for a prominent Republican to show how tough he was, was to be a hard line anti-Communist and promote massive military spending. The real cherry on top, for conservatives, was that it was often easy to tie certain liberal priorities to evil Communism. Everything from supporting unions, to government regulation of heavy industry, or cutting defense spending was socialist and helped our bitter enemies- the Russkies. They got to look tough *and* make liberals look like traitors for wanting to spend money on schools instead of nuclear attack submarines. Who wouldn’t want to be a khaki-clad foot soldier in the Reagan Revolution?
Then the strangest thing happened, the Cold War ended. America got different enemies, Russia was a defeated foe, and then a forgotten one. Russia went from a Communist Superpower to a struggling quasi-democracy, and finally to an autocratic, aggressive regional power, albeit one with nukes. Dreams of a return to Re-constituted Soviet Union flourished under Vladimir I. Putin along with white nationalism, orthodoxy, militarism, and the whole buffet of traditional conservative values.
For American conservatives, at least those on the younger side, our new enemies were Asian or Arab, and Russia started to look white and Christian by comparison. Then when Putin started leaning into being “tough” and “anti-woke,” whatever that gibberish really means, the right started to fall in love. Bashful and in denial at first, like a closeted gay Republican senator in a Minnesota restroom, but eventually more boldly.
So, the pump was already primed in certain circles when the Great Orange Blob rode his little escalator down to launch his plan to steal billions of dollars and tons of free publicity. Trump didn’t really care about promoting Russia, any more than he cared about destroying American democracy or building a wall. He just knew that certain morons would love it and give him money and attention for it.
That’s all it took. For fifty years, we were so concerned with Moscow trying to take over the world that we built enough nuclear weapons to kill every human being on the planet, but now a reality TV star says they’re okay and that’s it, all clear? The Russians are the reason for everything from NATO to NASA, but now, because they are sufficiently homophobic and racist, the far right sees them as allies. This is madness and treason on an international scale. Putin’s Russia invades Georgia and Ukraine, threatens global conflict. They arm and encourage our enemies from Iran to North Korea, and they interfere in our elections and try to destabilize democracies around the world. They are directly or indirectly responsible for a majority of the armed conflict going on today, everywhere on Earth.
I am not saying that American leaders who support Russia should be jailed or attacked, after all, we are not Russia, but is it unreasonable to say that they should not be granted security clearances or political power? Electorally purging Trump and Ted Cruz, along with a host of others, would be not only a good start, but also might make other conservatives more cautious about openly advocating against the United States in favor of Russia.
