January 27, 2022 11:28 AM UTC

Doing Real Damage: Boebert Joins The "Pro-Putin Caucus"

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• by: Colorado Pols

As the New York Times’ Jonathan Weisman reports, attempts by some Republicans to portray President Joe Biden as weak during the escalating standoff with the Russian Federation over a threatened invasion of eastern Ukraine are running into a serious problem–a faction of the Republican Party that has over the course of years come to admire Russian President Vladimir Putin in a similar fashion to ex-U.S. President Donald Trump:

Republican leaders, by and large, have struck an aggressive posture, encouraging Mr. Biden to get tougher on Russia, through immediate sanctions on Russian energy exports and more lethal aid to Ukraine’s military. But that message has been undermined by the party’s far right, which has questioned why the United States would side with Ukraine at all, and has obliquely suggested with no evidence that the president is bolstering his son Hunter Biden’s business interests…

The Republican representatives Matt Rosendale of Montana, Lauren Boebert of Colorado, [Pols emphasis] Paul Gosar of Arizona, Thomas Massie of Kentucky, Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia; the Ohio Senate candidate J.D. Vance; and Donald Trump Jr. have weighed in to oppose confronting Russia or to suggest nefarious intentions on Mr. Biden’s part. Mr. Trump told the conservative podcast host Lou Dobbs that Mr. Biden’s reported plan to send as many as 50,000 troops to bolster Europe’s defenses was “crazy.”

The Times cites an interview last November in which Fox News prime time-agogue Tucker Carlson, who has recently come out as a fanboy of old-school Eastern European authoritarianism espoused by Hungarian strongman Viktor Orban, actually suggested that the U.S. should “take Russia’s side” in the conflict–resulting in a bitter dispute with Republican Rep. Mike Turner:

“But hold on,” Carlson interjected. “Why would we take Ukraine’s side and not Russia’s side? It’s a sincere question. If you’re looking at America’s perspective, why? Who’s got the energy reserves? Who’s the major player in world affairs? Who’s the potential counterbalance against China, which is the actual threat? Why would we take Ukraine’s side? Why wouldn’t we be on Russia’s side? I’m totally confused.”

…Turner cited Russia’s annexation of Crimea.

“How did that hurt America exactly?” Carlson replied. “They came into Crimea. I guess I’m against that, but I didn’t notice a detectable decline in American living standards.”

For Republicans who took pride in America’s victory in the Cold War over the USSR and the subsequent expansion of liberal democracy eastward across what was formerly known as the “Iron Curtain”–and that used to be 100% of Republicans–the complete lack of willingness on the part of close supporters of former President Trump to stand up to Vladimir Putin as he tries to roll back history and retake control of former Eastern Bloc countries is an unthinkable betrayal. Putin is not only demanding that NATO abandon Ukraine to its fate, but also to kick new NATO members like Poland and the Baltic republics out of the alliance. Could America possibly do any more to project weakness and bad faith to the rest of the world? This shouldn’t be a partisan or even a particularly divisive issue.

If you really support abandoning the free nations of Eastern Europe that America spent half a century liberating to Russian authoritarianism only three decades after the end of the Cold War, all we can say is Ronald Reagan never knew ye.