-Angela
The GOP Is the Russian Propaganda Party Now
ECHOING PUTIN
I’m so old, I remember when the Republican Party proudly stood up against Russian aggression and interference.
During her testimony before Congress last month, former top
White House Russia adviser Fiona Hill threw a shocking assertion at
Republicans: “Some of you on this committee appear to believe that Russia and
its security services did not conduct a campaign against our country and that
perhaps Ukraine did,” she said. “This is a fictional narrative perpetrated and
propagated by the Russian security services themselves.”
Actually, it wasn’t that shocking. We have become inured to
it. What is more, her words fell on deaf ears.
Since then, one of the GOP’s top Putin water-carriers has
been Louisiana Senator John Kennedy, who continues to advance disinformation
that matches Russian talking points.
Most recently, his assertion that the former president of
Ukraine “actively worked” for Hillary Clinton prompted Meet the Press host
Chuck Todd to respond: “You realize the only other person selling this argument
outside the United States is this man, Vladimir Putin!”
What makes Kennedy’s comments especially egregious is that,
according to a recent New York Times report,
“American intelligence officials informed senators and their aides in recent
weeks that Russia had engaged in a yearslong campaign to essentially frame
Ukraine as responsible for Moscow’s own hacking of the 2016 election, according
to three American officials.”
In fairness to Kennedy, in using Putin’s talking points he’s also advancing Trump’s.
Other Republicans, such as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Rep. Devin Nunes
have done the same.
Of course, when you factor in other parts of the story, such
as Russia’s attempt to use the Republican-adjacent National Rifle Association
(NRA) as a “foreign asset,” it becomes harder to dismiss so
casually.
Kennedy's hardly the only one. My friend and former boss,
Tucker Carlson, said on his show Monday night that, “We should probably
take the side of Russia if we have to choose between Russia and Ukraine. That’s
my view.”
He then blasted Todd
for his interview with Kennedy, declaring that, “The irony, of course, is that
Putin, for all his faults, does not hate America as much as many of these
people do.”
Even if you dismiss the possibility that something truly
nefarious is at play between Trump and Russia, you’re still left with a pretty
startling and undeniable development: The GOP has become the Russia
party.
This is nothing short of a stunning reversal.
Sometime after the assassination of the other John Kennedy
(the Democratic one was actually a Russia hawk), the Republicans and “Scoop”
Jackson Democrats stood united against Russia.
It was the Right that was obsessed with stopping Russian
infiltration—and calling out people on the Left for being “useful idiots” or
“dupes” or (worse) traitors. In some cases, such as Joseph McCarthy, this “red
scare” was inappropriately demagogued for political purposes. And in 1950,
Richard Nixon accused his Democratic opponent, Helen Gahagan Douglas, of being
“pink right down to her underwear.”
But it’s worth pointing out: RUSSIANS REALLY WERE TRYING TO
INFILTRATE AMERICAN INSTITUTIONS.
America has been blessed to have two political parties. The
Democrats were largely right about civil rights, and the Republicans were
largely right about the Cold War. These were two of the big questions of the
last half of the 20th century. What is amazing is how quickly the Republicans
have completely flipped on such a defining issue.
It’s hard to pinpoint just when this happened, but it’s fair
to say it started sometime after they started referring to Republican states as
“red” states (coincidence? I think not!). Still, just seven years ago, the
Republican nominee for president, Mitt Romney, declared that Russia was our
number one geopolitical foe. Sadly, he was mocked for this. “The 1980s are now
calling to ask for their foreign policy back, because, the Cold War's been over
for 20 years,” then-President Obama jibed.
For whatever reason, the very next year was the first time I encountered conservatives who were praising
Putin. Even then, it struck me as bizarre. It probably has something
to do with when I came of age, but count me among the Americans who never
trusted Russia. What’s amazing to me is that there aren’t more of us. My
favorite modern president is Ronald Reagan, who called the Soviet Union an
“Evil Empire” and told Mr. Gorbachev to “Tear down this wall!” And if you want
to talk about a propaganda effort, imagine the cumulative influence that Rocky
IV and Rambo, had on us, and that’s just to mention the
Sylvester Stallone movies. Let’s be honest, Hollywood cares only about ticket
sales. But if the American government had wanted to indoctrinate us into being
lifelong conservative, anti-Russians, they couldn’t have come up with a better
way to spend their billions.
These days, the old slogan has flipped to better red (ok,
Russian) than politically dead.
Facing the prospects of nuclear annihilation, yesterday’s
Leftists preferred a communist future. Facing the prospects of electoral
defeat, today’s Republicans prefer to advance Russia’s propaganda. Whether it’s
physical cowardice or political cowardice, it sure isn’t about putting America
first.
Of course, Obama had a point when he said that the Cold War
has been over a long time. Here, though, I think there are two huge caveats:
First, there’s the fact that the current leader of Russia is an ex-KGB agent
who called the collapse of the Soviet Union a “genuine tragedy.”
The second is that communism was only one of the reasons to fear Russia. Sure,
I was against Godless atheism and a top-down planned economy—things that are
ostensibly now gone—but I was also against authoritarianism, murder,
dictatorship, and imperialism—attributes that are demonstrably still
present.
These last few years have shown me countless ways that the
world I grew up in has turned upside down, and the political party that I
embraced because of Ronald Reagan, and then spent most of my life allied with, has
not only abandoned its stance on issues that drew me to the GOP—but has
actually done a 180 on them.
A lot of things have surprised me, but
none more than than this: The GOP is the Russia propaganda party.
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