NY Times The G.O.P.'s 'Putin Wing'

[Botany]

Liz Cheney, “The Putin wing of the G.O.P.”

April 7, 2022, 6:32 a.m. ET

Donald Trump turned Vladimir Putin into a popular figure among a significant segment of Republican voters. As a candidate, president and ex-president, Trump has repeatedly praised Putin, calling him “strong,” “savvy” and “genius.” Trump has also echoed Putin’s ideology, by harshly criticizing NATO.

Taking their cue from Trump, some Republican voters began to view Putin more favorably. A YouGov poll in January found that Republicans viewed Putin more favorably than they viewed President Biden, Kamala Harris or Nancy Pelosi.

Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has changed the situation, damaging his popularity in the U.S., even among Republicans. If anything, many Republican voters say they wish the Biden administration would take more aggressive action to help Ukraine, according to the Pew Research Center. Yet Trump’s effect on Putin’s popularity has not entirely disappeared: There is still a meaningful faction of Republican elites who feel an affinity for the Russian president.

Today’s newsletter looks at this faction. Representative Liz Cheney, the Wyoming Republican and frequent Trump critic, describes it as “the Putin wing of the G.O.P.” It both admires him as a strong leader and likes his right-wing nationalism, including his opposition to NATO, Western liberalism and L.G.B.T. rights.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/07/briefing/republican-party-putin-wing.html

[lagomorph777]

1. Unbounded depravity.

Trump has excised the capacity for shame from a substantial segment of the US population.

[Botany]

2. From the article.

In the days leading up to the invasion, Trump praised Putin for recognizing Ukraine’s economic
and strategic value to Russia. “He’s going to go in and be a peacekeeper,” Trump said. “We could
use that on our southern border.”

[lagomorph777]

3. Trump does love genocide.

His COVID genocide has been quite successful so far. I wonder how many Roubles he got for it?

[Botany]

4. "He's (Putin) going to go in and be a peacekeeper,"

[llashram]

5. d.trump/Putin wing of our

conservative political swamp, ugly, ugly, hateful and vicious. WE must get vicious too, against their racist, fascist Hitlerian (American trump style)white nationalism/supremacy Party. I remember that d.trump had Mein Kamph as night reading on his bedstand.

[BobTheSubgenius]

6. What is wrong with these people? Idolizing American radicals and imbeciles is one thing...

...but a dictator ruling America's former bitter enemy? It's surreal in its awfulness.

[CaptainTruth]

7. The modern GOP wants to rule as an autocracy & force their will on the masses.

That's not surprising to anyone who's been paying attention, & it explains much of why they admire Putin.

[Botany]

8. Everytime they or Fox speaks about Hunter's lap top they are giving a Russian produced talking point

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2021/03/trump-russian-asset-election-intelligence-community-report.html

Attacks on Biden and his son, Hunter, were part of this operation. Through “US officials and prominent US individuals, some of whom were close to former President Trump and his administration,” the report says Russia’s intelligence services “repeatedly spread unsubstantiated or misleading claims about President Biden and his family’s alleged wrongdoing related to Ukraine.” In this way, Trump’s circle “laundered” the Russian-planted stories, which were then recirculated—and promoted by Russia’s online proxies—as American news.

[Starfury]

9. If it's more than half the party, it's not a "wing". It's the party.

The (relatively) sane minority remaining on life support is the wing of today's GOP.