Putin - Conservative Darling

[MellowDem]

I'm always interested in subjects that split otherwise solid ideological groups. We have a couple here, such as pit bulls and Olive Garden (I keed I keed). These subjects can expose a deeper understanding of an ideology's reasoning, and often some of their hypocrisy.

I've noticed a trend among far-right conservatives on Free Republic. A sizable chunk view Putin as a hero, the opposite of the hyperbolically demonized Obama. That's right, the leader of an oligarchical plutocracy, supposedly everything a rugged individualist would hate, gets love from a lot of FR.

I've come up with some reasons I think that is:

1. He's white. Rarely said too explicitly, but not too hard to see either. All the dog whistles you want to hear.

2. He's Christian. This one is said bluntly all the time. Not only that, but he uses Orthodox Christianity as a tool of the state and ties it to Russian patriotism and nationalism. They can look past his Orthodox view for that.

3. He fights Muslims. The perception is, he is this white Christian crusader holding off the evil brown Muslim hordes.

4. He opposes Obama. That's enough to get you some love in FR, no matter who you are.

5. He promotes free-market capitalism. All logic aside (as usual for FR), the perception is that he's different from those socialist commie European countries to the west.

6. His nationalism/his distaste for multiculturalism. Again, a perception, but one that they think contrasts with European countries who are letting their nation be overrun by non-white heathens in the name of cultural diversity.

7. His macho strongman persona/propaganda. This resonates strongly with the FR psyche, which gets a boner just thinking about authoritarian bullies. Obama weak, Putin strong.

Not all of FR worships him, and the terrible arguments (well, it is FR) for and against him expose deep contradictions and inconsistencies in their thinking, not to mention plenty of cognitive dissonance and intellectual dishonesty.

[ck4829]

1. How to troll RW Putin lovers (Some of my favorites)

"Oh, he's the 'Russian Ronald Reagan'? (Yes, I actually have seen this) Well, they both engaged in arms deals with Iran."
(Another variation that you can do is say he must be 'better' than Reagan, because when Reagan's arms deals with death squads and Iran were exposed; he shied away from it, said he had no knowledge, and then in the end only mid-level subordinates were actually punished. Putin, on the other hand, announces his arms deals with death squads and Iran in advance.)

"Remember that time Putin liberated Abkhazia and South Ossetia from our ally Georgia and then laughed at Bush and Condi when they said it was time to return to the status quo and give Georgia their land back? Oh by the way, those two places are recognized as sovereign countries by Venezuela (When it was under Hugh Chavez no less!) and by the Sandinistas in Nicaragua."

"Well, Chechen militants are running around and if you question how things work in Russia, you might end up like Sergei Magnitsky. So someone's got to be blame, so why not the gays, I mean it's not like it can be the government's responsibility, right? Right?"

[jberryhill]

2. Intentionally so

Remember how the international communist conspiracy was a weapon in the hands of Russia to use useful idiots on the left attack this country from within?

They're playing the other side of the street now.