If you want a handy list of the very, very worst members of the House of Representatives, just take a look at those who voted against continuing aid to Ukraine. It's not about the budgetary ramifications of the aid; that's bullshit spin. This is a group of people who exist entirely in opposition to the majority of the country, which does still support Ukraine. These are people who are the living personification of Cleek's Law. Could some of them be on the take from Moscow? Sure, it's possible, as these people have no moral core.
More likely there is a combination of two factors at play. The first is that Biden, Democrats and what's left of mainstream Republicans support Ukraine, so like oppositional defiant toddlers, they take the opposite positions and pretend like there's some deeper principle behind it. This is bullshit. The second is that Putin is really the platonic ideal of Trumpism in several important respects.
First, Putin has positioned himself as a culture warrior. He cozies up to the church, hates on LGBTQ folks, and generally follows a line of ethnonationalism that is perfectly inline with the GOP. Secondly, Putin maintains a "democracy" in the sense of having elections, but they have almost zero democratic legitimacy. A few "opposition" parties are allowed to exist and win seats in the Duma, but there is no credible path of someone other than Putin and United Russia to win and hold power, and that is the basic idea currently underpinning Trumpism and the GOP. Elections are only legitimate when we win.
So, while many people on the rogue's roll above have been to Hungary to coddle Viktor Orban's balls, they would be visiting Moscow (as some GOP members did!) to do the same to Putin, if they could.
No comments:
Post a Comment