Why Republicans Admire Putin

On the surface, it is clear that right wingers are split over how to react to the fact that Vladimir Putin has chosen to declare war on Ukraine. Donald Trump, Tucker Carlson, and the rest of the MAGA crowd are openly siding with Putin, while the more traditional war hawks, like Sen. Lindsey Graham, are condemning the Russian president, comparing him to Adolph Hitler. 

There are, however, some disturbing things that unite both sides. At this critical moment, they are both joined in blaming President Biden for the actions of Putin. For example, House Republican leadership issued a statement stating that "Sadly, President Biden consistently chose appeasement and his tough talk on Russia was never followed by strong action." During an unhinged rant with Fox News host Laura Ingraham, Trump pretty much echoed those remarks.

But there is something deeper that unites the two Republican factions. Trump and Carlson openly praise the Russian tyrant. That side has always made it clear that they prefer strong-arm dictators to democracy. But when House Republicans suggest that Biden never followed his "tough talk" with "strong action," it's worth taking a minute to unpack what they mean. 

While the president was working tirelessly to unite our allies in response to Russian aggression, Republican hawks were pushing for him to act both preemptively and unilaterally. For example, Graham was pushing for U.S. sanctions before Russia invaded Ukraine - while diplomatic efforts were still underway. 

Sen. Ted Cruz introduced a bill that would have had the U.S. preemptively sanction the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, ignoring the fact that it was being developed via an agreement between Russia and Germany. As one of our critical allies, the Biden administration fought those efforts, knowing it was important to partner with Germany rather than pre-empt their decision on the pipeline. In the end, Germany made the decision to halt the launch of the pipeline itself. 

So while these war hawks denounce Putin, they mirror his attachment to a 19th Century Great Powers approach to foreign policy. They have no interest in working with our allies, but see the U.S. as the "exceptional country" that unilaterally dictates what will happen on a global scale. Putin sees Russia in much the same way.

The fact is that, going back to the days when Ronald Reagan declared that the Soviet Union was an "evil empire," Republicans have actually admired Russian leaders. Here's something Jonathan Chait wrote about that back in 2014:

Three decades ago, right-wing French intellectual Jean-François Revel published a call to arms entitled "How Democracies Perish," which quickly became a key text of the neoconservative movement and an ideological blueprint for the Reagan administration. Revel argued that the Soviet Union’s brutality and immunity from internal criticism gave it an inherent advantage over the democratic West — the United States and Europe were too liberal, too open, too humane, too soft to defeat the resolute men of the Iron Curtain.

“Unlike the Western leadership, which is tormented by remorse and a sense of guilt,” wrote Revel, “Soviet leaders’ consciences are perfectly clear, which allows them to use brute force with utter serenity both to preserve their power at home and to extend it abroad.” Even though Revel’s prediction that the Soviet Union would outlast the West was falsified within a few years, conservatives continue to tout its wisdom.

If you're like me, Revel's assessment that the U.S. and Europe were "too liberal, too open, too humane, too soft to defeat resolute men," sounds pretty familiar. It's the kind of thing we often hear about Democrats these days. Too few people on the left have come up with an adequate response to that kind of criticism.

It all comes down to two different views about how to wield power: dominance or partnership. What Republicans share with Putin is a belief in the idea that dominance is the only means to power. That leads them to embrace a Great Power view of foreign policy. During his speech to the Muslim world in Cairo in 2009, President Obama offered an alternative.

Words alone cannot meet the needs of our people. These needs will be met only if we act boldly in the years ahead; and if we understand that the challenges we face are shared, and our failure to meet them will hurt us all.

For we have learned from recent experience that when a financial system weakens in one country, prosperity is hurt everywhere. When a new flu infects one human being, all are at risk. When one nation pursues a nuclear weapon, the risk of nuclear attack rises for all nations. When violent extremists operate in one stretch of mountains, people are endangered across an ocean. When innocents in Bosnia and Darfur are slaughtered, that is a stain on our collective conscience. That is what it means to share this world in the 21st century. That is the responsibility we have to one another as human beings.

And this is a difficult responsibility to embrace. For human history has often been a record of nations and tribes -- and, yes, religions -- subjugating one another in pursuit of their own interests. Yet in this new age, such attitudes are self-defeating. Given our interdependence, any world order that elevates one nation or group of people over another will inevitably fail. So whatever we think of the past, we must not be prisoners to it. Our problems must be dealt with through partnership; our progress must be shared.

To get an idea of how partnership can work, one only needs to compare the failure of unilateral sanctions against Cuba to how the global sanctions the Obama administration negotiated against Iran brought that country to the bargaining table. Another example of partnership would be the global reaction to apartheid in South Africa.  

We're already hearing a bit about how Russia's decision to declare war on Ukraine will impact the entire globe. The U.S. has a choice about whether to unilaterally attempt to dominate Putin (something that probably isn't on the table due to the risk of nuclear annihilation) or to explore the power of partnership by working with our allies to contain, and eventually stop him. The latter certainly doesn't guarantee success, but it sure beats the hell out of the alternative.