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Brando's avatar

It's really a sign of just how much Trump was able to completely turn around the GOP in just 8 years. The GOP foreign policy going back to Eisenhower had long been about defending our fellow democracies and Europe in general from Soviet encroachment, and even to the extent the pre-Ike GOP was isolationist, it certainly wasn't sympathetic to Russia/USSR. As late as 2012, Republicans scoffed at Obama for being too soft on Putin (admittedly, Obama and Bush were both dragged along by a hope that Putin could be someone they could charm and influence--not unlike FDR thinking he could do the same with Stalin. Note to POTUSes--Russian leaders always are thinking you're a patsy when you do that!).

Trump shows up, with a very weird love for Putin--not in the "I think I can work with this guy" sense, but in the "what he wants, he gets, because he's amazing! Hey do you think he's saying something nice about me right now?" sense. Perhaps Putin bribed him, perhaps he has other leverage, perhaps being a wannabe dictator Trump is just mesmerized by brute force to cover up his longtime feelings of masculine inadequacy. Whatever the case, he's completely beholden to a dictator of a declining power, which is not just disgusting it's embarrassing when this is coming from the president of the most powerful nation on earth. And while for some Republicans this still doesn't sit right, they still embraced Trump, and most of them are now also embracing Putin, rejecting democracy abroad (which sort of fits with their new domestic policy too!) and showing our allies that America cannot be counted on so long as Republicans can wield power. It's a remarkable transformation, and another sign that whatever the GOP's previous faults, Trump made them far worse in degree and kind.

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SethTriggs's avatar

This was the best investment Putin ever made. It's a damn shame.

And nobody will ever trust the United States to be a partner in good faith ever again. Who could blame them?

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