I'm legitimately so confused why so many Republicans seem to hate Ukraine (other than the politicians being in the pocket of Putin).
The cost of U.S involvement in Ukraine is only 60 billion so far, only 2/3 of the MONTHLY budget of the U.S military and I swear to god I hear more people bitching it about than Afghanistan, which cost 2.1 trillion dollars and is literaly 35 times greater than what we spent in Ukraine.
Even if you were extremely selfish and didn't care for saving a country and it's citizens from genocide it's in our best interest to defeat Russia. For the last 2 decades the Russian federation has been intentionally sabotaging Europe and the west in general. From hybrid warfare, online propaganda, poisonings and assassinations, destroying deep sea infrastructure, of course cutting energy to Europe and even more.
I'm so tired of this dumb shit idea spreading like wildfire amongst conservative circles and how selfish people are for believing it.
I think there are two factors. First, during the 2016 election, Russia hacked the DNC servers and released the data (heavily salted with disinformation, I'm sure) to damage Clinton's campaign. Less well known is that they also hacked the RNC servers. That data was never released. I am quite comfortable in assuming that there was some real dirt in there on some Republican officeholders. It would certainly explain the complete about face on Trump that many of them had. One day they were publicly ripping into Trump and the next they were sucking up to him. Putin having dirt on people like Gaetz, etc., could also explain some of their current attitudes on Ukraine.
The second factor is more about the Republican voters but applies to some of the more insane Republican office holders too. Trump was publicly calling on Russia to go after his political enemies during the 2016 election which one would assume would alienate anti-Russian Republican voters. It didn't though. Those that drank the Trump Flavor-Aid chose to support Trump no matter what. They went all in on the enemy of my enemy is my friend, and since Russia was going after Hillary, Russia was now their friend. There were literally people walking around Trump rallies wearing shirts that said, "Better Russian than Democrat."
This attitude still holds today. These profoundly deluded people really think that supporting Russia and opposing the Democratic administration's agenda is somehow patriotic. It is frankly terrifying.
Don't forget the culture war stuff. The Russian Orthodox Church is more socially conservative. (You can see this in Poland too.) Homosexuality is punished, women are more "traditional", etc. And Putin projects a cult-of-personality that people like, even if they have arobber-baron oligarchy.
Repubs look at that stuff fondly, they're titillated.
Because uncle Donny and Putin are friends and he was going to let them roll through. Russia helped build/fund the MAGA movement to sow division in America. Of course they don't support Ukraine.
It's also really confusing because even if you don't have any particular affinity for Ukraine, even a Republican must acknowledge that functionally Russia and China are only things that are even remotely close to peer adversaries, and any military hardware we send Ukraine is going to get dumped directly into damaging that adversary. It's basically one of the most efficient military investments you could get right now. If you're even a bit pro military, you should be pro Ukraine.
I'm legitimately so confused why so many Republicans seem to hate Ukraine (other than the politicians being in the pocket of Putin).
The cost of U.S involvement in Ukraine is only 60 billion so far, only 2/3 of the MONTHLY budget of the U.S military and I swear to god I hear more people bitching it about than Afghanistan, which cost 2.1 trillion dollars and is literaly 35 times greater than what we spent in Ukraine.
Even if you were extremely selfish and didn't care for saving a country and it's citizens from genocide it's in our best interest to defeat Russia. For the last 2 decades the Russian federation has been intentionally sabotaging Europe and the west in general. From hybrid warfare, online propaganda, poisonings and assassinations, destroying deep sea infrastructure, of course cutting energy to Europe and even more.
I'm so tired of this dumb shit idea spreading like wildfire amongst conservative circles and how selfish people are for believing it.
Rant over.
I think there are two factors. First, during the 2016 election, Russia hacked the DNC servers and released the data (heavily salted with disinformation, I'm sure) to damage Clinton's campaign. Less well known is that they also hacked the RNC servers. That data was never released. I am quite comfortable in assuming that there was some real dirt in there on some Republican officeholders. It would certainly explain the complete about face on Trump that many of them had. One day they were publicly ripping into Trump and the next they were sucking up to him. Putin having dirt on people like Gaetz, etc., could also explain some of their current attitudes on Ukraine.
The second factor is more about the Republican voters but applies to some of the more insane Republican office holders too. Trump was publicly calling on Russia to go after his political enemies during the 2016 election which one would assume would alienate anti-Russian Republican voters. It didn't though. Those that drank the Trump Flavor-Aid chose to support Trump no matter what. They went all in on the enemy of my enemy is my friend, and since Russia was going after Hillary, Russia was now their friend. There were literally people walking around Trump rallies wearing shirts that said, "Better Russian than Democrat."
This attitude still holds today. These profoundly deluded people really think that supporting Russia and opposing the Democratic administration's agenda is somehow patriotic. It is frankly terrifying.
Don't forget the culture war stuff. The Russian Orthodox Church is more socially conservative. (You can see this in Poland too.) Homosexuality is punished, women are more "traditional", etc. And Putin projects a cult-of-personality that people like, even if they have arobber-baron oligarchy.
Repubs look at that stuff fondly, they're titillated.
At this point I don't think there's anything that could come out about Republicans that would make their base reconsider them
Off topic, but let me applaud you for getting the right beverage mix for the reference.
aside from them being literally subject to Russian propaganda and being too stupid to realise, the other factor I think is quite simple.
they think its "woke" to not want Ukraine to fall. that's pretty much it
It is the Ayn Rand influence imo.
Helping Ukraine is alturism, which is bad without self interest.
And MAGA equates to an isolationist nationalist facism. Orwellian.
Because uncle Donny and Putin are friends and he was going to let them roll through. Russia helped build/fund the MAGA movement to sow division in America. Of course they don't support Ukraine.
It's also really confusing because even if you don't have any particular affinity for Ukraine, even a Republican must acknowledge that functionally Russia and China are only things that are even remotely close to peer adversaries, and any military hardware we send Ukraine is going to get dumped directly into damaging that adversary. It's basically one of the most efficient military investments you could get right now. If you're even a bit pro military, you should be pro Ukraine.
Well to paraphrase several preacher, "Putin at least has state church" and the gold gem "Putin at least isn't protrans or gay".
Then you have some people that are against because Dem are for it. It is literally just for them about not agreeing with the other on ANYTHING.
Heh. "Only."
Damn, I could use just one measly billion.