Republicans becoming Putin-lovers -- a Trump connection?

[lpetrich]

The change in Republican voters' views of Putin since Trump's rise is remarkable - Vox

From Economist / YouGov polls:

In July 2014, (favorable) - (unfavorable) for Putin was -54 for the Democrats, -66 for the Republicans. They both rose very slowly until July 2016, becoming roughly -49 for the Democrats and -54 for the Republicans. But after July 2016, Republicans' favorability toward the Russian leader jumped dramatically, becoming -10 in December 2016. Democrats' favorability declined to -62.

I have not been able to find any more recent numbers.

It is not just this poll. It is also politicians' statements, and the video in that Vox article shows off the dramatic change in many Republican politicians' opinions of Putin.

The difference is, it seems, Donald Trump and his Russian connections. But what made other Republicans so enthusiastic? As opposed to grudgingly going along with Trump's Putin-loving.

 

[lpetrich]

From a year ago: Poll: Republicans' confidence in Russia's Putin on the rise - POLITICO

Russian President Vladimir Putin is enjoying rising popularity among Republicans according to a new poll from the Pew Research Center.

The poll found that the share of Republicans expressing confidence in Putin doubled to 34 percent from 17 percent in 2015, when Donald Trump launched a campaign for the White House that was seen as friendly toward Moscow.

...
Just 13 percent of Democrats have confidence in Putin, the poll found. And while 61 percent of Democrats consider Russia a major national security risk, only 36 percent of Republicans do, the poll of 1,505 adults conducted from Feb. 16 to March 15 found. The poll had a margin of error of 3 percentage points.

The partisan gap is a recent development, said Margaret Vice, a senior researcher at Pew and the lead author on the report.

...
The ideological split exists in other countries as well, she said, with those on the right in Italy, Greece and Australia also holding warmer views toward Putin.

...
"In most of the 13 countries in which ideology was asked in 2015 and 2017, the ideological split in views toward Russia and Putin have not changed significantly, outside of the U.S.," Vice said.

...
Russia’s popularity in the United States used to be substantially higher — nearly half of Americans had a favorable view in 2010 — but tumbled after the annexation of Crimea in 2014.

Seems like more evidence of a connection between Putin-loving and Trump's campaigning and presidency.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Well, the Russians have young female spies fucking their way into influential positions (pun?) with right-wing groups. So we should expect this. What is enraging is that the right-wing has fully bought into the Trump character. Nothing will change their mind. He is cozying up with Putin and then just follow suit as if they were the ones that always loved Putin... all the while criticizing about how Obama didn't do enough about all the bad things Putin did. The obfuscation is off the charts... there needs to be a new word for it.

I want to call these people incompetent patriots. They are willing to stand to defend Trump against America, all the while waving the American flag.

 

[southernhybrid]

Trump's hardcore base have been manipulated by their cult figure. If the cult leader seems to be supporting Russia, so goes the cult. Is this really surprising?

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Trump's hardcore base have been manipulated by their cult figure. If the cult leader seems to be supporting Russia, so goes the cult. Is this really surprising?

Yes, because it is becoming an actual cult. We knew that Trump was a cult of personality, but it is going beyond what we were even fearing... far beyond.

 

[braces_for_impact]

I've come to view Trump humpers in a different light - sort of. I've realized that the importance to them isn't economics. It isn't even very political, really. The battle is the social one for Trumpers. It's making the "elites" lose control of the culture war. It's about White Supremacy, triggering Libtards, and telling those Euro-fags to get bent. They've watched Trump act in horrible ways without shame, and they wish to do this too. I had viewed this as a somewhat new phenomenon, but recently I learned that much of this isn't anything new.

In the book The Second Coming of the KKK, the Historian author paints a much different picture of the KKK than many of us picture today. A KKK which is eerily similar to our modern Trump humpers today. Including as it turns out, the belief in incredibly implausible conspiracy theories and "fake news". The heavily integrated involvement of the evangelicals (like today), and the social aspects of the movement, again much like the modern version. It's all very enlightening, and something I think we should emphasize to anyone at large that cares.

 

[marc]

I want to call these people incompetent patriots. They are willing to stand to defend Trump against America, all the while waving the American flag.

Some of them are also waving the Confederate and Nazi flags. When these people talk about patriotism, I think they are more likely talking about loyalty to a plot of land and their own ideals. The 'United States' and 'Constitution' are only given as much token respect as they can be used to advance their goals. After all, some of these people still consider Lincoln a tyrant, who started the 'war of northern aggression'. And there was those two alt-right guys who in a video admitted they don't care about freedom of speech, they just use it to protect themselves.

 

[bilby]

Trump's hardcore base have been manipulated by their cult figure. If the cult leader seems to be supporting Russia, so goes the cult. Is this really surprising?

Yes, because it is becoming an actual cult. We knew that Trump was a cult of personality, but it is going beyond what we were even fearing... far beyond.

What's all this 'we' business? The word 'cult' was never a metaphor as far as I was concerned.

 

[Crowcause]

We can solve the energy crisis if we could tap into the energy of Joseph McCarthy spinning in his grave!
Growing up in the duck and cover era, Republicans were the most avid of demonizing anything remotely connected to Russia, and most retained those views after the break-up of the U.S.S.R.
I have no way to process or comprehend how these attitudes have changed as much as they have in such a short time span.

 

[marc]

We can solve the energy crisis if we could tap into the energy of Joseph McCarthy spinning in his grave!
Growing up in the duck and cover era, Republicans were the most avid of demonizing anything remotely connected to Russia, and most retained those views after the break-up of the U.S.S.R.
I have no way to process or comprehend how these attitudes have changed as much as they have in such a short time span.

Four legs good, two legs better. How prophetic of the book.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Trump's hardcore base have been manipulated by their cult figure. If the cult leader seems to be supporting Russia, so goes the cult. Is this really surprising?

Yes, because it is becoming an actual cult. We knew that Trump was a cult of personality, but it is going beyond what we were even fearing... far beyond.

What's all this 'we' business? The word 'cult' was never a metaphor as far as I was concerned.

You do realize there is a difference between backing someone like George Wallace... and willingly drinking poison laced Flavoraid, right? We are currently between the two of these it seems.

 

[funinspace]

I think that some of this shift in attitude towards Russia predates FFvC. I started looking at Right Wing Watch (http://www.rightwingwatch.org/) due to the rantings of some of my in-laws roughly 3 years ago. And some of the people in the Alt-R (as in what I call Alt-Reality), have been talking nice towards Russia/Putin for at least that long. They like Putin's anti-homosexual attitude. I think they like his machismo. I also think it ties back to white nationalism and their fear of eventually no longer dominating US society/politics. They are seeking authoritarians to 'save our country'. I suspect that the shift also ties back somewhat to 9/11 and the emergence of the Islamic Boogieman. With the Islamic Boogieman, the Repugs no longer need a Soviet/Russian Boogieman so much to push the fear buttons in order to feed the military-complex. As time when by, I think this shift started seeping into the DC Repugs, such as with clowns like Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert.

 

[Elixir]

I think that some of this shift in attitude towards Russia predates FFvC. I started looking at Right Wing Watch (http://www.rightwingwatch.org/) due to the rantings of some of my in-laws roughly 3 years ago. And some of the people in the Alt-R (as in what I call Alt-Reality), have been talking nice towards Russia/Putin for at least that long. They like Putin's anti-homosexual attitude. I think they like his machismo. I also think it ties back to white nationalism and their fear of eventually no longer dominating US society/politics. They are seeking authoritarians to 'save our country'. I suspect that the shift also ties back somewhat to 9/11 and the emergence of the Islamic Boogieman. With the Islamic Boogieman, the Repugs no longer need a Soviet/Russian Boogieman so much to push the fear buttons in order to feed the military-complex. As time when by, I think this shift started seeping into the DC Repugs, such as with clowns like Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert.

Only about 40,000 of the 144,000,000 (about 0.03%) Russians are "afro-russian". So very white. Our bigots have always liked that...