The left has gotten desperate. In fact, they are so desperate that they are trying to weaponize the Ukraine/Russia conflict against Republicans. Ever since the first shots were fired, leftists began employing a rather odd strategy: Pretending conservatives like Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Democrats and their close friends in the activist media have consistently accused right-wingers of admiring and defending Putin’s brutal actions against Ukraine. They pointed to Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s recent comments about the matter, in which he questioned why Americans should be concerned about the conflict.
“Has Putin ever called me a racist? Has he threatened to get me fired for disagreeing with him? Has he shipped every middle-class job in my town to Russia?” Carlson asked during one of his segments. “Did he manufacture a worldwide pandemic that wrecked my business and kept me indoors for two years? Is he teaching my children to embrace racial discrimination? Is he making fentanyl? Is he trying to snuff out Christianity?”
Of course, any sane person could see Carlson was not defending Putin’s actions but simply questioning why Americans should be overly concerned with matters that do not affect our nation.
Leftists also cited comments made by former President Donald Trump and his former adviser Steve Bannon about the Russian president. To be fair, there have been times when Trump has seemed to praise Putin. Most recently, he referred to the Russian president as “genius” and “smart.” But this is not necessarily an endorsement of Putin’s actions – it is simply an acknowledgment of the reality that the Russian president is a competent and shrewd leader. One might even make similar statements of Hitler, but that does not mean they approve of the actions he took.
In a piece written for Salon, author Chauncey DeVega wrote:
Racial attitudes and values help to structure how Americans, particularly white Americans, feel about both domestic politics and foreign policy. For example, it is no surprise, and really no mystery — as some members of the mainstream news media and commentariat appear to believe — why many Republicans and other members of the white right defend or even embrace Vladimir Putin and his war in Ukraine. This is readily explainable: The Russian president is viewed by them as a champion of “conservative values” and the possibility of a return to what they have deluded themselves into believing was a “golden age” of white male Christian dominance over all areas of American (and global) society.
That’s right, folks. Conservatives apparently like Putin because of white supremacy and stuff.
But, as is typical with the activist media, they are leaving out critical information. Indeed, they are engaging in one of their favorite pastimes: focusing on people who represent the fringe and pretending they represent the majority of the group. It’s a practice known in the journalistic world as “nutpicking.” However, the numbers don’t quite bear out this theory. FiveThirtyEight reported:
Polling over the last few weeks has found Republicans, like most Americans, don’t trust Putin. In an Economist/YouGov poll conducted Jan. 22-25, 15 percent of Republicans said they had a very or somewhat favorable view of Putin, similar to the 11 percent of Americans overall who said so. A plurality of Republicans (45 percent) said they had a very unfavorable view of the Russian leader. In a Morning Consult/Politico poll from last week, more Democrats (20 percent) said they strongly or somewhat approved of how Putin was handling the conflict in Ukraine than did Republicans (10 percent). And when asked in a CBS News/YouGov poll conducted Feb. 8-11 whether the U.S. should support Ukraine, support Russia or neither, only 4 percent of Republicans said “support Russia” (in line with the 5 percent of Democrats who said the same).
There you have it.
The numbers clearly show that the vast majority of Republicans do not trust Putin and are not in favor of his actions. One did not need a slew of polls to know this, however. Indeed, even those claiming right-wingers have some sort of love affair with the Russian leader know their statements are false. But while the Democrats are struggling to maintain the favor of the American public, their allies in the activist media must do everything they can to help. In this instance, they are hoping to make conservatives look so odious to the rest of the populace that voters decide to allow Democrats to maintain power in the House and Senate.
The problem with this strategy is that it is so obviously deceptive that it is a wonder Democrats actually believed people would fall for it. This is the type of lie you tell to those who already want to believe what you’re selling, not to serious people who want to know why you have failed to deliver, despite having control of the White House and Congress. But, as they say, why stop your opponent when they are making a mistake?
