Thomas ZimmerDec 29, 2022
Why the American Right Admires Putin’s Russia
 
Reactionaries largely agree with Putin’s critique of the weak, “woke” West. To the Right, the fight against multiracial pluralism overrides everything else.
 
New Democracy Americana: 1/ https://thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/why-the-american-right-admires-putins
Why the American Right Admires Putin's Russia

Reactionaries largely agree with Putin’s critique of the weak, “woke” West. To the Right, the fight against multiracial pluralism overrides everything else.

Democracy Americana
Show threadThomas ZimmerDec 29, 2022
Last week, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s visit to Washington culminated in an impassioned address to a joint session of Congress in which he thanked the U.S. and pleaded with American lawmakers to continue their support for his country. 2/
Show threadThomas ZimmerDec 29, 2022
America is divided. That’s not news. But the authoritarian ruler in the Kremlin deciding to invade a democratic neighbor – that’s the type of international crisis that traditionally might have inspired some closing of the ranks: Set differences aside, let domestic quarrels rest. 3/
Show threadThomas ZimmerDec 29, 2022
But conservatives are evidently out on the idea of patriotic unity, even in the face of a despotic war of aggression against an allied democracy. The Trumpiest of Republican representatives and some self-proclaimed rightwing populists, demonstrated their disdain for Ukraine’s war effort. 4/
Show threadThomas ZimmerDec 29, 2022
Tucker Carlson, the Right’s leading media extremist, went much further and treated his audience to what was, even by Tucker’s exquisite standards, a rather unhinged tirade – calling Zelenskyy “the Ukrainian strip club manager” and raging against continued U.S. support. 5/
Show threadThomas Zimmer
Carlson’s rant is a reminder that significant portions of the Right are not on board with America’s support for a European democracy fighting for freedom, that quite a few rightwingers, can’t seem to shake their admiration for Putin and the cause he supposedly represents. 6/
Dec 29, 2022 at 3:10pmWeb
Show threadThomas ZimmerDec 29, 2022
The Right’s reactions to the Russian invasion have ranged from blatant admiration for Putin to anti-Russian saber-rattling combined with a shrill critique of President Joe Biden and “wokeism” at home. Trump and Carlson were perhaps crasser than most, but they weren’t outliers. 7/
Show threadThomas ZimmerDec 29, 2022
Early on, prominent Republicans focused on Joe Biden’s supposed weakness as the real cause for Putin’s aggression and left no doubt who they considered the biggest threat - the “enemy within,” as Sen. Rick Scott put it: the “militant left wing in our country.” 8/
Show threadThomas ZimmerDec 29, 2022
Openly siding with Putin in this war is not GOP mainstream – siding with his critique of “woke” leftwing forces as the central threat to the nation very much is. That is hugely significant, as it reveals so much about the Right’s animating vision for American society. 9/
Show threadThomas ZimmerDec 29, 2022
There is an influential tradition on the Right of admiring Russia in general and of idolizing Putin specifically, as a defender of white Christian values against the onslaught of secular, “leftist” liberalism. 10/
Show threadThomas ZimmerDec 29, 2022
In the Obama era, the conservative media machine loved to fawn over Putin as the very white, very macho, very alpha (in that stupidly toxic, riding-a-horse-shirtless kind of way) counterpart to Obama. 11/
Show threadThomas ZimmerDec 29, 2022
Both reactionary intellectual sphere and religious conservatives were in too: In 2013, for instance, Pat Buchanan described Putin as “One of Us,” an ally in what he saw as the defining struggle “against the militant secularism of a multicultural and transnational elite.” 12/
Show threadThomas ZimmerDec 29, 2022
Similarly, in 2014, famous evangelist Franklin Graham lauded Putin for having “taken a stand to protect his nation’s children from the damaging effects of any gay and lesbian agenda” – an agenda Barack Obama was supposedly pursuing in the U.S. 13/
Show threadThomas ZimmerDec 29, 2022
Some of the confusion over the Right’s pervasive sympathy for Putin stems from the fact that conservatives still love to rail against the omnipresent threat of Communism – while adoring the Russian autocrat who is an ex-KGB officer Shouldn’t this bother conservatives? 14/
Show threadThomas ZimmerDec 29, 2022
The Right is actually quite correct in perceiving the prevailing system in Russia as a kind of authoritarianism defined by an ethno-religious understanding of the nation and a social order that combines patriarchal traditionalism with oligarchic dominance. 15/
Show threadThomas ZimmerDec 29, 2022
This certainly captures how the American Right has seen Russia for quite some time. It’s a vision U.S reactionaries find very attractive – close to what they want to impose on the whole country as the natural and/or divinely ordained order. 16/
Show threadThomas ZimmerDec 29, 2022
Once we look closer into what, exactly, conservative anti-“Communism” has been all about during and since the end of the Cold War, it becomes clear why the transition from “evil Commie empire” to “white Christian Russia” was rather effortless. 17/
Show threadThomas ZimmerDec 29, 2022
Even at the height of the Cold War, when they invoked the specter of “Communism,” conservatives didn’t just talk about a foreign threat. Anti-“Communism” was always also, and often predominantly, an anti-liberal stance against the “leftist” enemy within. 18/
Show threadThomas ZimmerDec 29, 2022
This infamous photo, for instance, was taken at the Little Rock, Arkansas state capitol, in August 1959 – the “Communist Race Mixing” in question was the integration of Little Rock’s Central High School (from a Library of Congress collection): 19/
Show threadThomas ZimmerDec 29, 2022
Conservatives have always derided anything that threatens the social and racial hierarchy, any sort of leveling attempt, as “Communism” or “Socialism” and used these terms to demonize anyone who dares to question the righteousness of white reactionary elite rule. 20/
Show threadThomas ZimmerDec 29, 2022
Based on this specific understanding of what the danger of “Communism” actually was/is, it is perfectly consistent to rail against Communism while admiring the ex-KGB officer in the Kremlin for his willingness to uphold traditional hierarchies by whatever means. 21/
Show threadThomas ZimmerDec 29, 2022
As is so often the case, what happened after 2016 was not caused by Trump – but his rise exacerbated these long-standing trends and tendencies. With Trumpism in power, the simmering admiration for Putin morphed into GOP orthodoxy. 22/
Show threadThomas ZimmerDec 29, 2022
Support for Donald Trump correlates strongly with a favorable opinion of Putin, and Americans who define the U.S. as a “Christian nation” have a much more favorable view of Russia. As recently as January 2022, Putin had a higher approval rating among Republicans than Joe Biden. 23/
Show threadThomas ZimmerDec 29, 2022
Conservatives are displaying a strong affinity with what they see as Putin’s key project of preserving Russia as a “strong” white Christian patriarchy - in opposition to the multicultural, pluralistic hellhole into which “the West” is supposedly degenerating at alarming speed. 24/
Show threadThomas ZimmerDec 29, 2022
Vladimir Putin understands his appeal to Western reactionaries precisely. He likes to present himself as an ally in the fight against “wokeism,” often railing against “cancel culture” and the West’s supposed obsession with trans rights, emphasizing “family values.” 25/
Show threadThomas ZimmerDec 29, 2022
Putin’s anti-woke exploits have often gotten him glowing reviews from reactionary commentators and intellectuals. Rod Dreher, for instance, believes Putin is entirely right about “the society-destroying nature of wokeness and postliberal leftism.” 26/
Show threadKansas GrantDec 29, 2022
@tzimmer_history The typography on those signs seems remarkably professional - not at all like you typically see in protest signs, even today. Hmmm...
Show threadKansas GrantDec 29, 2022
@tzimmer_history Knowing what we know about Elmo, it's obvious why he would be so sympathetic to Putin's cause, as defined above.
Show threadKansas GrantDec 29, 2022
@tzimmer_history Having seen that photo, I can attest to the "very white" part.
Show threadNathan KalmoeDec 29, 2022
@tzimmer_history Yep. And Putin knows that and actively has his people play that up to further divide the US. They see value in adopting the language of domestic US politics in search of allies or at least hindrances to Putin's enemies.
Show threadmichelle.catDec 29, 2022
@tzimmer_history It’s not YOUR country Rick it is everyone’s left and Right