I am a child of the Cold War. I remember being told to “duck and cover.” That is, to crouch against a school hallway wall and cover the back of my neck with my arm. Presumably to protect me from the effects of an inevitable nuclear blast, delivered by our not-friends, the Russians. Sure, it was the Soviet Union, but that really meant the Russians.
It was terrifying, truly scarring, as I agonized over what this meant. If the bomb fell, and I was in school, would I ever see my father and mother again, or my siblings or my grandparents? Or if we were at home, would our old stone cellar protect us from the blast? Or the radiation? And would there be room for our dogs? My friends? We lived with terror.
In later years, the Soviet Union broke up, and the countries that were part of it – willingly or (more often) not – began to democratize. Even Russia. And there was a brief and luminous time when it seemed that Russia might, indeed, join the community of civilized and peaceful nations.
Things didn’t go so well, though, and along came a guy named Vladimir Putin, a former KGB apparatchik who now runs Russia.
In 2005 Putin called the collapse of the Soviet Union “the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the past century.” And since seizing control of the Russian government, he has set about methodically transforming Russia into the functional equivalent of the Soviet Union he so laments.
A tightly controlled political system ensures him a spineless legislature eager to rubber-stamp his every act, while his political opponents find themselves exiled or jailed (if they’re lucky) or dead. The press, which for a few glorious years was exuberantly free, has been smashed, and an alarming number of investigative reporters are, like opposition politicians, dead. TV is strictly controlled by the central government, and the populace is spoon fed whatever news the Kremlin wants them to hear – and little else.
Two and one-half years ago, Putin sought to expand his reach by annexing Crimea, stealing it from Ukraine, an act that violated international treaties and rewrote Europe’s borders for the first time since World War II. The brazen invasion rightly sent shock waves through nearby now independent countries, particularly NATO members Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, known for years as the Soviet Union’s “captive nations.”
Russia – the old, terrifying Russia – is back.
And as a child of that old and terrifying Russia’s effect, I genuinely do not understand this admiration that so many Republican politicians seem to have for Vladimir Putin. They say that he is “strong,” a great leader. Especially when compared with our current president, Barack Obama.
And no one seems more admiring of Russia’s autocratic strongman than Donald Trump, the man carrying the standard of the Republican Party into this November’s presidential election. He has been singing the praises of the Russian almost since he started his campaign. Putin is “a leader,” and he’s “highly respected within his country and beyond.”
At a recent so-called town hall meeting when NBC’s Matt Lauer pressed Trump about some of his more effusive praise for Putin, Trump airily responded that, well, “he does have an 82 percent approval rating according to the different pollsters.” Trump loves polls.
Doubling down, Trump added that “the man has very strong control over a country. It’s a very different system and I don’t happen to like the system, but certainly in that system, he’s been a leader. Far more than our president has been a leader.”
A different system? I’ll say. Vladimir Putin presides over a kleptocracy that steals his nation’s resources for a favored few, invades neighboring countries, currently is credibly accused of trying to interfere in the U.S. election, and backs ruthless dictators around the globe, including Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad who is currently, with the help of Russian planes and armaments, slaughtering his own citizens.
And it connived with the shooting down of a Malaysian airliner carrying 298 people over Ukraine just two years ago.
None of this matters to Trump. “If he says great things about me, I’m going to say great things about him,” Trump told Lauer.
Beyond the rhetoric, Trump has taken positions – particularly threatening not to defend NATO allies against a possible future Russian invasion – that are closely in line with the Russian leader’s long-held strategic goals. NATO has been a lynchpin of the 70-year- old peace in Europe, something unimaginable before it was established. And Russia – personified by Vladimir Putin – hates NATO.
So Trump is the guy Kelly Ayotte supports for President of these United States? The same Kelly Ayotte who is running as a foreign policy and defense expert, thanks to her closeness to senators John McCain and Lindsay Graham? Who touts her cred on international affairs?
Who presents herself as a smart, sober supporter of a tough foreign policy? That Kelly Ayotte?
And don’t parrot that ridiculous line Kelly is pushing – she will vote for him, but she doesn’t “endorse” him. Please. By saying she will vote for him, she is endorsing him. It’s that simple. And by endorsing him she is endorsing his positions.
I will admit, though, that Ayotte at least is critical of Putin. In fact, she said, Putin should be “punched in the nose,” figuratively, of course.
A lot of her fellow GOPers are unabashed Putin fans. Since the inauguration of Barack Obama, the Russian leader – who has made his own disdain for our president evident – has been an object of admiration. Which is strange, to the say the least, given conservatives’ long history of staunch anti-communism and hostility to autocratic Russian rulers.
A few are over the top about it. Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani – who has become, God help us all, one of Trump’s closest advisers – has volubly praised the Russian leader’s “leadership,” his boldness and his speed to assert Russian interest in Crimea. Sarah Palin happily lauded Putin “as one who wrestles bears and drills for oil” while Obama “wears mom jeans and equivocates.”
But admiring Putin’s “toughness” has become almost common with even sober Republicans, including folks like John McCain and Lindsay Graham, who contrast the Russian despot’s apparently admirable iron rule with Obama’s alleged “weakness.” It is truly shameful.
Vladimir Putin should, rightly, be a pariah, particularly for liberty-loving Americans. Instead, he is an object of admiration for Republican standard-bearer Donald Trump. This is the same Trump who on Monday squandered the last important minutes of his much ballyhooed first debate with Hillary Clinton reliving and defending his body-shaming of a teenage beauty queen 20 years ago. Who devoted much of the remainder of the week to continuing to denigrate the woman he once called “Miss Piggy.”
I assume, though, that he will soon be back to singing the praises of Vladimir Putin, who is reviving the hatred and paranoia that dominated the world 50 years ago. And his fellow Republicans, including New Hampshire’s Ayotte, want him to be our next president.
I really don’t get it.