Is Vladimir Putin emerging as some sort of conservative hero? Earlier I left a comment saying that I would not write a post about such things, as I don’t need the headaches. But an article I read made me decide to take that back. After all, if other people are already discussing the issue, I can just link it here as a sort of throwaway post and not have to put much thought into it myself.
Anyway, this post by David Ernst explores it in all its unpleasant details.
Russia’s rightward turn renders Putin’s regime immune to the criticism of western liberals, and polarizes western conservatives. It therefore strains the Atlantic alliance, and neutralizes the claims of policymakers in both Europe and the United States that Russia’s resurgence presents a threat. Thus it strengthens Putin’s hand in the former Soviet periphery, Eastern Europe and in the Middle East against the moral, legal and political objections of Western governments. Moreover, it establishes an entirely new ideological precedent for autocratic regimes who seek to challenge the American led world order. As Ukraine’s liberals seize the initiative against a government that enjoys Putin’s backing, they will look to the Western world for validation and support. The West could easily respond in kind; as of late however, its leaders have either been too reluctant, or have forgotten how. If Western Europe and the United States are serious about sustaining a world order that prevents conflict, enables prosperity and promotes liberty and the rule of law, then their governments should defend it on those terms. Evidently, the Kremlin has figured out how to either shut them up or turn them against each other.
[…]
To hear a former KGB colonel bemoan the “erosion of ethnic traditions and differences between peoples and cultures,” and the “destruction of traditional values from above” is at the very least amusing, if not astoundingly mendacious. Putin is nevertheless speaking to sentiments that an increasing number of Westerners share. Moreover, he is the only statesman of any noteworthy stature who is publically addressing them.
In the United States, Putin’s right turn has exacerbated old divisions among its conservative intelligentsia. The reaction of some conservatives to Putin’s December speech has been positive, if not affirming. Putin’s call to return to traditional values and scorn for elites who willfully promote “abortion on demand, homosexual marriage, pornography, promiscuity, and the whole panoply of Hollywood values” compelled Pat Buchanan to wonder aloud whether Putin “was one of us?” Writing in The American Conservative, William Lind went so far as to claim that “American conservatives should welcome the resurgence of a conservative Russia.” Such praise for Putin couldn’t more strongly contrast the loathing of other American conservatives. Writing for National Review, the Stanford classicist Victor Davis Hanson compared Putin to Milton’s Satan, arguing that “he winds up existing to warn us in the West of what we are not.” Throughout the Cold War, American conservatives were predictably unified in their ideological stand against communism. Indeed, the Soviets faced few enemies as unyielding as those who shared the views of either Mr. Lind or Mr. Hanson. Evidently, Putin has divined the formula for polarizing his more traditional opponents.
There’s a lot more. Obviously, Putin knows there’s a sucker born every minute. More in The Atlantic, Reason, and The Daily Beast.
(“Great right hype” is more like it… Divide and conquer is one of the oldest KGB tricks in the book, and homo-baiting demagoguery carries little political cost, especially in Russia.)
MORE: Politics makes strange bedfellows. And politics makes me sick. (I mean that more literally than you might imagine…) God, how I hate the “red meat conservative” WorldNetDaily-style right wing. My problem is that I hate the left wing much, much more.
Comments
15 responses to “Is Putin the Great Right Hope?”
The Hanson post, at least, had nothing to do with admiring Putin, it was just talking about the same polarization you mentioned, and pointing to some of the ways Putin had managed it. Not sure about the others, I only follow Hanson because I enjoy his history books.
Amen on your postscript.
(I simply won’t follow a WND link if I notice the URL, just like I won’t read Kos or DU.)
Putin’s right turn?
He’s in favor of limited gov’t and low taxes?
I will say that I avoid WND so I don’t know about them, but I’d say the Emperor is pretty ‘right’ and this is much more like the reaction to Putin I’ve seen in the righty blogs I read.
http://nicedoggie.net/?p=9897
Comparing the Ukraine deal to Germany invading Poland.
I read WND daily, as I read the MSM’s and yes, Kos and Little Weird green footballs.
Always be aware of your opponents thinking.
Always. jb
Vietnam war draft dogging chicken hawk coward neo-con artists like john bolton dick cheney richard pearl and the fox not news scum want war . President Obama should put this slime on the first flight over their so they can do their own fighting for a change!
Ah cap, you always bring an elegant tone to the conversation.
I don’t know if Putin’s the Great White Hope outside of the WND crowd, but I have seen a bunch of people defending his invasion, once as a repeat of Texan independence from Mexico for instance.
Putin was all about how Chechnya could not vote to leave the Russian Empire and sent in a genocidal military but here is saying that Crimea can vote to leave their nation.
I cannot understand how people can look not at how people act but at what they say.
That, of course, is how Obama was reelected.
Also defending Putin’s invasion is Justin Raimondo at the so-called libertarian site antiwar.com in this piece:
http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2014/03/04/a-monster-reawakens-the-rise-of-ukrainian-fascism/
And from where did Justin get all this information about the rise of neo-Nazis in Ukraine? My guess is that it was fed to him directly out of Russia. Like he gives a shit about anti-semitism, anywhere:
http://www.theblogmocracy.com/2013/08/21/justin-raimondo-compares-crackdown-on-muslim-brotherhood-to-tiananmen-square/
He should rename his site antijew.com and be done with it.
And then right on cue, Ron Paul chimes in with more support for Russia, at russiatimes.com, of course:
http://rt.com/usa/ron-paul-ukraine-crisis-002/
Putin’s boys take baseball bats and kidney kicks to Ukrainian.
Spengler, Glenn Reynolds, Bill Quick…your silence is deafening.
http://news.yahoo.com/ukraine-plans-patriotic-rallies-crimea-crisis-deepens-063306255.html
http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/K9V.3vVn8uTA0kktprOUCw–/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9ZmlsbDtoPTUyNztweW9mZj0wO3E9NzU7dz03Njg-/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/afp.com/8124e8c8873ff1402b7a498580863501847c53cb.jpg
Why does it take a life long Democrat to speak the truth and size up Putin while short sighted Republicans lick their chops at Obama’s, and our country’s helplessness?
http://pjmedia.com/victordavishanson/putin-is-everything-and-more-but-not-stupid/#comments
From a comment at VDH 6 hours ago:
5) Things are in motion. The Russian ambassador to Latvia today has announced that the Russian ethnic minority in Latvia will be issued Russian passports and citizenship. The Latvian government has no say in this, and Russia now has the same “grounds” to invade Latvia as they claimed for the Crimea.
6) Latvia is a NATO country. Russia, apparently, is not worried about that detail.
I’m listening but all I hear from the right, and libertarians are crickets.
Mikhail Khordorkovsky, who spent 10 years as a political prisoner in Russia, addresses a rally in Kiev:
I have been shown what the authorities did here. They did this in agreement with the Russian authorities – more than 100 dead, more than 5,000 wounded. I’ve seen the plywood planks they used to stand up to the bullets. It made me want to cry, it’s so awful. Russian propaganda lies, as always. There are no fascists or Nazis here, no more than on the streets of Moscow or St Petersburg. These are wonderful people who stood up for their freedom.
There are people who despite the arrests, despite the long years they have spent in prison, go to anti-war demonstrations in Moscow, people for whom friendship between the Russian and Ukrainian people is stronger than their own freedom.
http://www.oddycentral.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Man-on-fire.jpg
Fuck you Spengler.