Russia Groomed Trump For Decades To Destroy The Republican Party

[DanieRains]

Republicans used to be "hawks" when it came to Russia.

Now they love Russia, and travel there for directions and to get help it appears.

And the "party" defends Putin's number one asset in America.

Trump.

Mission Accomplished!!!!!

[Marius25]

1. Why would Russia want to destroy the GOP?

[Mme. Defarge]

3. To destroy our democratic republic

naturellement.

[Marius25]

4. Right, but destroying the GOP

would improve the US. Seems more like Russia has supported the GOP in order to destroy Democracy. They haven't destroyed the GOP.

[ret5hd]

2. "Russia Groomed Trump For Decades To Destroy The USA"

Fixed it you're welcome.

[Hortensis]

5. Well, now maybe you need to fix the "mission accomplished."

We're not destroyed, and the fact that we're sitting around tippy tapping instead of scrabbling anxiously for food and ways to stay warm ought to be a big clue.

They didn't even destroy the Democratic Party, which was a more immediate goal since we're the big, existential enemy Putin must defeat if he's to prevail. They did hurt us badly, though.

[Irish_Dem]

6. Trump is not the only one Putin has groomed.

That is for certain. There are many more Putin groomed.

[dchill]

7. There it is.

[Stallion]

8. Hell a Bunch of Them Have Russian Mail Ordered Brides

[LakeArenal]

11. Including Das Leader.

[JHB]

9. Why would they groom him to "destroy the GOP"?

When they started he was nominally a Democrat (because it was expedient for his business dealings in NYC). And the Republicans haven't had much of a problem with Russia since the USSR collapsed. Their main criticisms of Russia involved criticizing Obama. Plenty of them voiced admiration for Putin, and since when do Republicans have objections to oligarchy?

The GOP was not the target. Disrupting us and our allies was.

[roamer65]

10. Russia flipped from communism to fascism.

That is why the Repukes now love what they used to hate.

[magicarpet]

14. Russia/Putin transformed to ultra orthodox religion, anti gay,....

.. political stance,... and condoning ultra right Nazi youth movements.

[LakeArenal]

12. Putin is dealing with shit that could ruin him so

Let his people bring him down.

[Caliman73]

13. Not sure that is accurate.

I know there is reporting out that Trump was targeted as an asset or at least a dupe, for years by KGB and Russian agents after the fall of the Soviet Union.

I would argue that it was not to destroy the Republican Party in particular however. Some Republicans were Russia Hawks because the Soviet Union was Communist. There were a lot of Democratic leaders who were also hawks. The reason for the belief that only Republicans were hawks is their own propaganda that Democrats were "soft on Communism" just as Democrats are "soft on Crime". Democrats are nuanced and favor multiple approaches to dealing with geopolitical rivals, whereas Republicans favor bluster, threats and militarism. During Bush Jr.'s Presidency, remember Bush looked into Putin's soul? During President Obama's tenure, when Russia was engaging in proxy war with Ukraine and Invaded Georgia, remember the GOP was pretty silent, except for McCain? The GOP's stance on Russia was never about Russia, it was about Communism or at least about having a superpower foe to have an arms race against. Republicans seem to care little about China, even though they are nominally communist. Sure they use China as a cudgel to attack Biden, but they support the donors to the Republican party who ship their factories to China and don't seem to care about any trade deficits.

I would imagine that Putin, who is decidedly NOT a communist but an authoritarian, right wing, oligarch. Saw much more in common with Trump and the GOP and thought he could use them to 1. Advance Russian goals and 2. Foment chaos in the American political system thus weakening our standing in the world.

On that front, it is Mission Accomplished.

Trump is out of power. The Republican party is somewhat divided between conservatives who favor a more subtle form of hierarchy and status quo, and those who want to plunge straight into fascism.

With Trump's defeat, and Biden, not the biggest hawk, but certainly aware of Russia's malfeasance and intends to take a less passive approach to dealing with their transgressions.