QOTD: The Putinization Of The Republican Party

 

Today's op-ed by E.J. Dionne, Jr. in the Washington Post discusses why we face a "light over darkness" battle in the U.S. with the forces on the Trumpist right:

"In the United States, we can be grateful that Ukraine’s cause draws support across the political spectrum. Witness the applause when President Biden denounced Putin and embraced Zelensky and the Ukrainian people in his State of the Union speech. Especially well-received: Biden’s invocation of Zelensky’s promise that 'light will win over darkness.'

That’s what friends of democracy are hoping for in the long run, despite Russia’s overwhelming advantage in firepower. But Zelensky should not be used as a source of cheap grace. We cannot ignore the shadows that have fallen across American democracy, cast largely by the power of an increasingly antidemocratic far right in the Republican Party.

With admirable exceptions such as Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah and Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, Republicans have been very slow in coming to terms with the depth of Putinization that Donald Trump bred in their party. The former president will now forever be remembered as the man whose initial reaction to to Putin’s invasion of Ukraine was to call it an act of 'genius.'

I suppose it’s a good sign that former vice president Mike Pence — very, very belatedly — now says 'there is no room in this party for apologists for Putin.' But Republicans largely sidestep Trump and ignore the many ways he undermined Zelensky while in office. Their preferred path, reflected in the reply of Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) to Biden’s State of the Union address, is to blame Putin’s aggression on Biden’s 'weakness on the world stage' and to characterize Biden’s foreign policy as 'too little, too late.'"  (our emphasis)

Even now, Republican hacks like Gov. Reynolds want to gaslight us and blame Putin's long-practiced aggression on his neighbors on President Biden, after four years of her cult leader's kowtowing to the Russian despot and doing his bidding for him (e.g., trying to dismantle "obsolete" NATO).