National Security, Vladimir Putin, and the MAGA Republican Party
One of Donald Trump's 'sir' stories, which casts doubt on its veracity, nonetheless clearly expresses his contempt for our NATO allies. If Trump were to decide that an ally wasn't pulling its weight, and that country was attacked by Russia, Trump would encourage Putin's troops:
"I would encourage them to do whatever the hell they want."
This is Trump, playing the tough guy, while sidling up to Vladimir Putin. The NATO alliance has protected European democracies for 75 years, first as a defense against the U.S.S.R., later against an authoritarian Russia intent on seizing the territory of its sovereign neighbors.
Trump has often sided with Putin. When Putin was described as a killer, Trump responded, "There are a lot of killers. There are a lot of killers. What, you think our country is so innocent?" In Helsinki he accepted Putin's word over the U.S. intelligence community regarding election interference. "President Putin says it's not Russia. I don't see any reason why it would be." And Trump's response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine was, "This is genius." He admired Putin's misdirection in declaring Ukraine "independent" and pledging to "keep the peace": "You gotta say that’s pretty savvy.”
Since Trump has come to dominate the Republican Party, the bipartisan consensus on American leadership in the world has disintegrated. The GOP has fallen in line, while unconvincingly dismissing the significance of the capitulation. Senator Lindsey Graham responded to Trump's remarks on NATO: “Give me a break — I mean, it’s Trump", adding, “All I can say is while Trump was president nobody invaded anybody." While Senator Marco Rubio said, “I have zero concern, because he’s been president before. I know exactly what he has done and will do with the NATO alliance."
The murder of Alexei Navalny
The murder of Putin's critics and rivals is nothing new. In February 2015, Boris Nemtsov -- a politician who advocated increasing political and civil freedom in open opposition to Putin and was organizing against a military incursion into Ukraine -- was assassinated, shot four times from the back as he crossed a bridge in Moscow. Many of Putin's opponents have suffered violent deaths, both in Russia and abroad. Guns, nerve agents, radioactive tea, falls from high buildings, and airplane crashes have silenced them.
“In the years since Nemtsov was murdered, Russia has transformed — to use the language of political science — from a dictatorship of deception to a dictatorship of fear and then, after the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, into an outright dictatorship of terror, akin to the one that exerted an iron grip on the Soviet Union for much of the 20th century." -- Alexander Baunov
In recent years, Alexi Navalny has been Putin's most prominent political opponent. His story is a familiar one. The most recent chapter: Navalny's death in a Siberian gulag. By poisoning in all likelihood. While many prominent political leaders across the globe immediately denounced the death and laid the blame on Russia's dictator, Donald Trump was silent for several days. Then this, a lame comparison of his losses in court (where he is finally being held accountable) with the "sudden death" of the courageous opponent of a ruthless dictator:
This fatuous drivel was repackaged for Fox News. "It's a form of Navalny."
While a number of Republican elected officials have condemned Navalny's killing, this hasn't stopped the party from blocking American aid to Ukraine, which -- without further help from the United States -- is literally running out of ammunition to repel the Russians.
All-in with Russian propaganda
Meanwhile, House Republicans' efforts to gin-up a presidential impeachment inquiry were dealt a blow when the source of what they regarded as the critical evidence against the president was charged by the Hunter Biden special counsel with lying to the FBI by passing along disinformation from Russian intelligence officials. The court filing reveals that Alexander Smirnov's lies continue, as he “is actively peddling new lies that could impact U.S. elections after meeting with Russian intelligence officials in November.”
In other words, Russian interference in U.S. elections, ongoing by 2016, is continuing. Smirnov's disinformation has fueled the cynical impeachment inquiry, while other sources (including a number of criminals) of Republican talking points have had ties to Russian intelligence. Putin and the GOP often walk in lockstep.
Conservative media universe meets Comedy Central
Why? How have MAGA conservatives come to admire a brutal Russian dictator? Jon Stewart, on a Comedy Central television series, has provided a clear, crisp, solidly truthful answer.
This month Tucker Carlson, fired from Fox News, regained a spot in the limelight with an exclusive interview with Putin -- what Politico called a "2-hour love-in with the Russian president." Carlson also played the oh-so-impressed visitor in Russia. In the pre-Trump, pre-MAGA era this would be baffling. Today, while easy to lampoon, it is hardly inexplicable.
Stewart critiqued Carlson's broadcast, which (as he explained) sought to portray life in Russia as not so much different from life in the U.S. -- and perhaps a bit better (because of Russian subway stations, shopping carts, escalator ramps, wonderfully smelling bread, and cheaper grocery prices). What Carlson failed to acknowledge, Stewart highlighted via a clip from the CBS morning news, showing scenes of Russians, placing flowers at makeshift memorials, being dragged away and arrested as screams are heard: "In Vladimir Putin's Russia, political repression is everywhere. And hundreds have been arrested for daring to honor Navalny so publicly."
Stewart explained why Carlson is so diligently engaged in his duplicitous project: "It's because the old civilizational battle was communism versus capitalism. That's what drove the world since World War II. Russia was the enemy then. But now they think the battle is woke versus unwoke. And in that fight, Putin is an ally to the right. He's their friend."
And that, of course, is why Hungary's Viktor Orbán, known for slowly, methodically snuffing out institutions that have preserved democracy in Hungary, has become a conservative icon. As Hungary has become more authoritarian and less free, MAGA Republicans have rallied around him. Although Trump's expressions of admiration have been confused at times (“He’s probably, like, one of the strongest leaders anywhere in the world. He’s the leader of Turkey.”), Republicans have followed his lead. Carlson first among them. CPAC as well.
The contemporary Republican Party has ceased to cherish freedom at home or abroad. The party has become enamored with undemocratic strongmen who impose traditional values (where one ethnic group rules over others, and men over women). It has deliberately chosen to reject democratic governance if it cannot win free and fair elections. While past Republican icons, such as Ronald Reagan, celebrated immigrants, the party now fears them.
The Christian right, dominated by white evangelicals, espouses a contorted view of religious freedom (a concept formed only by severing the establishment clause from the First Amendment) -- for itself, never mind other faiths or philosophies. The Dobbs decision, which stems from a religious view, is the first of many to come. Texas has led the way in suppressing a woman's right to make medical decisions regarding pregnancy, even when her life is at stake. The Alabama Supreme Court decision regarding "extrauterine children," a decision that said frozen embryos have the same rights as living children (while as a result women have fewer), is the latest assault. The concurring opinion of Alabama's chief justice is revealing.
“Human life cannot be wrongfully destroyed without incurring the wrath of a holy God,” he wrote in a concurring opinion that invoked the Book of Genesis and the prophet Jeremiah and quoted at length from the writings of 16th- and 17th-century theologians.
“Even before birth,” he added, “all human beings have the image of God, and their lives cannot be destroyed without effacing his glory.”
The GOP circa 2024, sad to say, has quite an agenda. Come November, I don't believe a majority of Americans will endorse it.