Opinion Trump and the Right's Strange Admiration for Putin
Why Trump and the West became enamored of a bellicose strongman who'd happily beat them with a stick and has reduced Russia to a third-world armpit boils down to one thing: Ignorance.
David Rosenberg Dec 12, 2016 5:51 PM
Graffiti depicting Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, and GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump, Vilnius, Lithuania, Sunday, Oct. 30, 2016. Mindaugas Kulbis, AP
Not long ago, conservatives hated and feared Russia and justifiably saw it as a threat to Western freedom. A lot of that was tied up with communism, but the fact is, Putin’s post-communist Russia is not exactly a beacon of freedom. And within the confines of its limited military and economic powers, Russia is a menace to its neighbors.
Whether on principle, or cynical manipulation of public opinion, Putin talks about the West as if it is his enemy. But the hostility is unrequited, as we saw yet again this week in the controversy over U.S. intelligence assessments that Russia had indeed interfered in the elections.
Waffling with syrup
Many Republicans expressed concern over the findings, but a surprising number of stalwarts of the party that once was home to Joseph McCarthy waffled.
Partly they are motivated by hatred of Hillary Clinton and a policy of not giving an inch to the other side. Partly it reflects a kinder, gentler attitude toward Russia that has emerged on the right.
It began long before Trump entered the presidential race, but Trump has adopted the trend for his own.
"He's running his country, and at least he's a leader -- unlike what we have in this country," Trump said during the election comparing Trump to Obama.
T-shirt depicting President Vladimir Putin as an Olympic strongman, Moscow, Nov. 10, 2014.Andrey Rudakov, Bloomberg
And then, there’s this: "Look at Putin—what he's doing with Russia—I mean, you know, what's going on over there. I mean this guy has done—whether you like him or don't like him—he's doing a great job in rebuilding the image of Russia and also rebuilding Russia period."
Just behind the Maldives
Okay, that was 2007 when Russia was still riding high on oil prices. Back then, Russia was like an oil sheikhdom: Everything is gold-plated thanks to oil profits. But scratch beneath the surface and there isn’t much of an economy there.
When oil prices collapsed and Western sanctions kicked in, the real Russia was laid bare.
But let’s take Trump’s advice and have a look at Putin.
We may live in a post-truth era, but for those of you who still can appreciate a good fact or two, here’s the scorecard on Putin and the country he is supposedly doing such a good job running.
The Russian economy: Its size in 2016 is about $1.27 trillion, in nominal terms, which ranks it No. 12 in the world behind Canada.
Canada, however, has just a quarter of Russia’s population. On GDP per capita basis, Russia ranks 71st, just behind the Maldives and one place ahead of Mexico.
The business environment: The World Bank’s Doing Business index, which rates things like how easy it is to get a business license or hook up your electricity, puts Putin’s Russia at No. 40 in the world, one step behind the notoriously misruled countries of Bulgaria and Belarus.
Corruption: Transparency International, which measure perceptions of malfeasance, ranks Russia 119th of 168 countries. That puts it on the same level of Azerbaijan, Guyana and Sierra Leone and one notch more corrupt than Tanzania.
Human rights: Freedom House categorizes Russia among the countries that are “not free” and gives it a six on a scale of 1-7 (seven being least free) in terms of overall freedom, political rights and civil liberties.
High-tech: Russia is No. 43 ranking in the World Economic Forum’s Global Innovation Index, that is behind Greece and the United Arab Emirates and barely ahead of Costa Rica and Moldova.
What appeals to the right is Putin’s decisive leadership, his defense of traditional values, his straight-talking and his nationalism. The fact that he runs a country that is one giant rust belt, ignores property rights, lacks honest government, interferes with its neighbors and democratic elections in the U.S., and conducts brutal wars is all secondary to the romantic image of the Leader.
Sadly, this seems to be the Trump leadership model, too -- all appearances and no substance. And, we see where that’s gotten Russia.
Thursday 2 March 2017 00.46 AEDT First published on Wednesday 1 March 2017 16.15 AEDT
All presidents deserve the respect that belongs to the office of the commander-in-chief. Even orange ones who trash the media, hide their business interests from public view, and praise Russian foes.
After just one month in office, it is safe to say this has been the most tremendous start to a presidency. It’s safe to say that because Trump says it all the time.
“I think in terms of effort, which means something, but I give myself an A+,” he told the ferocious interviewers on Fox and Friends on the morning of his big speech. “I think I get an A in terms of what I’ve actually done, but in terms of messaging, I’d give myself a C or a C+.”
Don’t be so hard on your messaging, Mr President. Your heroic effort has certainly been noticed around the world, in federal courts across the nation, and by the true measure of your success: on Saturday Night Live.
At the very least, based on this brutally honest self-assessment, the new president’s first address to Congress deserved an A+ for effort.
Say what you like about the Trump presidency, but he is working hard to make all those “others” feel really good.
“A new national pride is sweeping across our nation,” he read from his prompter in a tone he used to describe as low energy. “And a new surge of optimism is placing impossible dreams firmly within our grasp.”
You can almost feel the surge of optimism in the previously downtrodden minority known as white supremacists. The impossible dreams of David Duke are firmly within his grasp, including his warm embrace of Trump’s conspiracy theories about those antisemitic bomb threats.
- David Duke @DrDavidDuke
NYT "Prez Trump says attacks were reprehensible"[VERY TRUE] "Could be the reverse...trying to make people look bad." [Of Course it could] 11:09 AM - 1 Mar 2017 -
Just last week Trump’s evil genius, Steve Bannon, declared that his boss was objectively the greatest orator since William Jennings Bryan, the populist Democrat who campaigned in vain against the elites, alcohol, and science. Bannon insisted that Trump’s stump speeches were “full of content” and Tuesday’s address to Congress was no less full of it.
To grasp for some oratorical heights, Trump and his speechwriters imagined the 250th anniversary of the founding of the republic.
Never mind that the auspicious anniversary falls outside the scope of the second term of a Trump presidency. Trump simply refused to accept a 250th year burdened by the mistakes of the past decades, when “we’ve spent trillions and trillions of dollars overseas, while our infrastructure at home has so badly crumbled”.
His solution: to spend trillions and trillions of dollars overseas on increased military spending.
Some people might say this is contradictory, but they don’t see what Trump saw during his election: a moment in history that could not pass without mention or cliche. To underscore this point, he variously described 2016 as an earthquake, a rebellion, a protest, and a chorus.
“Finally the chorus became an earthquake,” he orated, “and the people turned out by the tens of millions, and they were all united by one very simple but crucial demand: that America must put its own citizens first.”
All except the non-united citizens: those who voted for Hillary Clinton, in greater numbers than moved the earth for Trump.
He described a world in which dead factories would come back to life, drug addiction would end, inner cities would spring into prosperity, and the nation would be paved with gleaming new roads. Seriously, they are going to gleam because of this promise: “Above all else, we will keep our promises to the American people.”
This is the best promise of all. An A+ kind of promise, which we know to be true because this is the most principled and ethical government ever.
“We have begun to drain the swamp of government corruption by imposing a five-year ban on lobbying by executive branch officials, and a lifetime ban on becoming lobbyists for a foreign government,” said the president who sounds like he lobbies for Vladimir Putin. If you have any doubt about this, you should ask the Trump Organization’s ethics officer to check the president’s tax returns, just to be sure everything is kosher.
Few of his critics understand what Trump so eloquently described as the way “each American generation passes the torch of truth, liberty and justice in an unbroken chain all the way down to the present”.
Trump’s loving care and attention to truth, liberty and justice shone throughout his lengthy explanation of his approach to immigration.
Soon, he promised, he would build a wall on the southern border, even before Congress has given him the money to do so. Right now, he assured us, he was deporting bad hombre criminals, as well as many who are just any kind of criminal. Already he was blocking the uncontrolled entry of so many Muslim foreigners, after so many Syrian refugees have wasted their green cards sitting in squalid camps on Greek islands.
Trump will keep all his promises, including the ones he just made Tuesday to work for “real and positive immigration reform”.
“The time for small thinking is over,” said this president of exceedingly large thinking. “The time for trivial fights is behind us.”
Those trivial fights are so far behind us that it’s been a full two days since he tweeted that the Russian stories were just a Democratic conspiracy to “mask the big election defeat and the illegal leaks!”
- Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump
Russia talk is FAKE NEWS put out by the Dems, and played up by the media, in order to mask the big election defeat and the illegal leaks! 5:16 AM - 27 Feb 2017 -
“We just need the courage to share the dreams that fill our hearts,” Trump concluded. “The bravery to express the hopes that stir our souls.”
Sometimes those hopes and dreams just happen to include the demise of the New York Times, CNN and all the enemies of the people known as the free press.
There is indeed a torch in Trump’s exceptionally large hands. And he’s not afraid to use it.
Summary: many of his comments made points taken out of context and misleading, were exaggerated, were of no or little consequence .. basically it was "see i can be presidential in my own way".
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