What is it about Russia and Vladimir Putin that forces the American national media to lie, make things up, and blurt out statements that have no basis in reality? The latest fiction is that Republicans and conservatives have a newfound affinity for Putin.
If you only watched MSNBC or read The New York Times, you’d be forgiven for holding the impression that all of Fox News and the Republican party have draped themselves in Russian flags and set up GoFundMes for the invasion of Ukraine.
The Times on Sunday ran the headline, “How the American Right Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love Russia,” by Emily Tamkin. According to the piece, the “American political right” has in recent years “shifted toward fawning praise for autocrats” and now views authoritarian regimes like Russia’s as “symbols of U.S. conservatism — a mirror for the right-wing worldview.”
That sounds awful! Tamkin’s examples of this “fawning praise for autocrats” include Tucker Carlson telling his audience to ask, “Why do I hate Putin so much?”; former President Trump referring to Putin as “smart” and “savvy”; and GOP candidate for the U.S. Senate J.D. Vance remarking in a recent podcast interview that “We did not serve in the Marine Corps to go and fight Vladimir Putin because he didn’t believe in transgender rights.”
via joemiller