Vladimir Putin has long been considered an adversary of the United States by conservatives and the Congressional Republicans.
In 2014, Daily Kos reprinted these quotes from the very right-leaning New Republic about how conservatives view Russia and its leader, Vladimir Putin:
‘For the other, the entirety of Russian history is a bloody swamp, from which Russia must be pulled into a liberal European system. What was happening in Pushkin’s Russia, in sum, is extraordinarily reminiscent of what is happening in Putin’s Russia.’
‘It is impossible to imagine Putin, the gray little KGB colonel, with a book in his hands.’
‘the corrupt system that Putin had built’
‘the constricting and humiliating space that is Putin’s empire’
‘The number of people whose brains have been cleansed by Putin TV may be a majority’
Yet here comes U.S. President Donald Trump, who seems to have nothing bad to say about Putin (even though he has criticized everything and everyone from China and Mexico to Meryl Streep and Rosie O’Donnell). President Trump is considering lifting current sanctions on Russia because he apparently admires Putin’s ability to abuse the people of his country so well (if you can think of another reason, I would love to hear it).
To make matters worse, we, of course, know that Michael Flynn, Trump’s fired national security adviser, has been confirmed to have had conversations with Russian leaders before Trump was inaugurated. This is contrary to what he apparently told now-Vice President Mike Pence. Of course this revelation puts Trump and Pence in a very nasty box.
The problem here for Trump is that the mailable Congressional Republicans will take just about anything from their newly elected ‘king’ except for the idea that when they have to run for re-election, they will lose if they have even a scent of Putin’s ugliness on them.
It is not the business conflicts of interest, the immature tweeting every night or the lousy cabinet he has nominated, it is his love for Putin that will eventually undo President Trump.
