Thread by @Teri_Kanefield

Hi, @FrankLuntz, you're getting lots of answers.

One answer comes from the political psychologist.

But first, the simpler answer: The modern Republican Party + Putin = true love because they have common goals.

1/

https://twitter.com/FrankLuntz/status/1497634499156348931

Putin’s regime, remember, is built on white nationalism, homophobia, and fear of those who are different.

As part of Putin’s rejection of all things communist, he embraced Christianity and aligned himself with American evangelicals.

Here is a timeline . . .

2/

2013: Russia enacted anti-homosexual legislation.
theguardian.com/world/2013/jun…

2014: Pat Buchanan said Putin was “entering a claim that Moscow is the Godly city of today.” He praised Putin for stamping out western evil like easy divorce and homosexuality.
buchanan.org/blog/whose-sid…
3/

British right-winger Katie Hopkins, in an article in which she was interviewed with her friend American right-winger Ann Coulter, said “Putin rocks.”

Hopkins praised Russia as being “untouched by the myth of multiculturalism and deranged diversity.

4/
rt.com

Talk show host Tucker Carlson said the U.S. should “rethink America’s alliances.”

Tucker Carlson basically derided people who claimed that Russia was our enemy.

Senator Rand Paul, who clearly has his own ties to Russia, agreed:

5/

Rand Paul went to Moscow to “open lines of communication.”

He met with Russian leaders and invited them to the United States.
abcnews.go.com/International/…

In 2018, Guiliani attended a pro-Russia conference.
washingtonpost.com/opinions/eight…

6/

Also in 2018, eight Republican leaders spent July 4th in Russia.
washingtonpost.com/opinions/eight…

Paul Hasson, the guy who planned to mass murder liberals, talked of “Looking to Russia with hopeful eyes. ”scribd.com/document/40010…

But that's not where the story starts.

7/

The story really starts earlier when Putin began pumping money to people like Trump.

And when he infiltrated the NRA to make it into a right-wing paramilitary.

And when people like Paul Manafort went to help Putin install a puppet president in Ukraine.

8/

Trump-Russia love goes back to the late 1980s.

Donald Trump allowed anonymous buyers to purchase his luxury condos, and he didn’t ask any questions, so he became a magnet for dirty money.

9/

I'll skip to the part of the story when the Soviet Union dissolved and before democracy could take hold, a few bandits seized control of Russia's industries and resources.

They needed to launder their money.
Trump needed money.

It was a match made in heaven.💕

10/

Trump came to power on two lies: First, birtherism, which connected him with the white supremacist. Second lie: he was a successful businessman.

In fact, he was propped up by Russian money.

Now, for the political psychologists and the authoritarian personality.

11/

Those with an authoritarian disposition have a “bias against different others (racial and ethnic outgroups, immigrants).

They make up about 1/3 of the population. @karen_stenner's research led her to conclude that This percentage occurs across cultures.

12/

They admire strong leaders, like Putin. They tend to fall in line.

They despise "weakness" and they fear people who are different. They like sameness and order, so diversity scares them.

There. In 13 tweets. Why they love Putin.

13/

Now that Russian bombs are homes, the really tough people like Zelenskyy are fighting back, and civilians are confronting Russian soldiers, watch as the Republicans try to distance themselves from Putin.

Don't let them.

Make them go down with Putin's ship.

14/

Appellate lawyers compulsively cite sources, so here's a partial bibliography for this thread:

Paxton, Anatomy of Fascism
Stenner, Authoritarian Dynamic
Gessen, How Totalitarianism Recaimed Russia
Snyder, Road to Unfreedom

Also:
justsecurity.org/60528/understa…

academia.edu/34651963/The_R…

The great Trump+Putin = 💕 continues.

Trump has no choice but to sing Putin's praises.

Just suppose Putin got really angry and started telling the world about some of their private conversations.

https://twitter.com/Acyn/status/1497733342086647809

For my blog post, I expanded this thread and combined it with a few others to talk about how GOP infatuation with Russian money and willingness to participate in Russian-style corruption brought us to this place.

terikanefield.com/the-renewed-re…

The blog post has 5 parts . . .

I: Gives the background on the love affair between America's far right-wing and the White evangelicals and Putin.

II. Gives just a brief overview of the Trump-Russia connections.

III. Talks about what political psychologists call the authoritarian disposition. . . .

. . . which leads about 1/3 of the population to worship "strong" men, despise weakness, and prefer sameness and order (while fearing complexity, which includes diversity.)

IV. For the people who are SHOCKED that a good percentage of Americans prefer authoritarianism . . .

. . . I include a brief history of authoritarianism in America. Slavery was authoritarian. Jim Crow was authoritarian.

Oligarchy is also part of our history. (See the blog post for more.)

terikanefield.com/the-renewed-re…

Finally . . .

. . . I talk about Republican efforts to backpedal from their Putin-love now that Putin is doing what people like Putin do: Bully people, establish strong-arm control, and try to stamp out democracy (which until now, the GOP has loved.)

There's more.
I also left out a lot.