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/

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/

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/

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/

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/

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/

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/

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/

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/