In a tense game of chicken, remarkable for its mix of petulance and audacity, congressional Republicans are threatening to halt U.S. aid to Ukraine—guaranteeing a Russian breakthrough and possible victory in that war—unless Democrats help pass a bill that all but locks down America’s Southern border.
If the impasse isn’t resolved by the end of next week, when Congress goes on recess until the new year, the Ukrainian army could run out of ammunition. President Joe Biden could resupply the arsenal from U.S. stockpiles without legislative approval, but the move would be temporary, and the signal sent—that Ukraine, and by implication other allies, can no longer count on U.S. support in a pinch—could be a holiday cork-popper for Russian President Vladimir Putin and all of our other adversaries.
The right is sympathetic to Putin because he pays lip service to the religious, which endeared him to the right across the world. The Republican constituenrs like Putin so their representatives also had to kowtow.
You know, this made me realise that Putin had been sublime with propaganda war. His illiberal and lip service payment to religious conservatives endeared him to the right. Then, his “anti-imperialist”, anti-Western rhetoric also won him the left.
Putin is playing both sides with strings on them. This isn’t like the old days of Cold War when there was a well defined enemy to oppose. Modern Russia is a malleable entity that woos people of either political inclinations. This created a polarisation in the West and elsewhere which benefits Putin. He’s actually been pretty savvy.
That’s not the whole story.
His polarized past allowed him to let opposition fight itself.
His past as a KGB agent led many on the right-wing opposition to claim he is nothing but a relic of the Soviet era, and that his grip on power is a direct result of KGB past, and from that claim that we should not repeat rhe socialist turn or it will be like that forever.
His current leadership in a capitalist country, as well as anti-social policies he took, led many on the Left to claim he’s just the servant of the rich.
Thereby both sides of the opposition saw him as an evil…but at the same time they claimed that if the other side of opposition comes to power, it will be no better, if not worse. Divide and conquer.