Putin & the Party of Lincoln

Where is sympathy for the Russian president in conservative U.S. media coming from? Cathy Young on the unusually complicated feelings about Putin on the American right. The Americans Where is sympathy for Putin in U.S. conservative media coming from? Cathy Young on the unusually complicated feelings about the Russian president running through the American right. Last week on Russian state television, the host Olga Skabeeva stood in front of a larger-than-life video image of the top-rated U.S. Fox News broadcaster Tucker Carlson, remarking that her “acquaintance” has “interests” more and more often “in tune with” Russia’s. Back in the United States, Carlson had been entertaining pro-Russia narratives on Fox News long before President Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine. As the war began earlier this month, the Kremlin directed media outlets to feature as many clips from his show as possible, according to a memo leaked to the U.S. magazine Mother Jones. While the broader American news media has largely sympathized with Ukraine in the current conflict—even occasionally to the point of [seeming to advocate for direct U.S. military intervention]( belongs to a set of right-wing media personalities who’ve denigrated Ukrainian President Zelensky; aligned themselves with Russian talking points, even as they might condemn the invasion; and even spread falsehoods and conspiracy theories, including about U.S.-funded biological weapons research in Ukraine. Why are they doing this? Cathy Young is a Russian-born American journalist, a staff writer at The Bulwark, and a cultural studies fellow at the Cato Institute. Young stresses that support for Putin’s invasion isn’t a mainstream phenomenon among right-leaning Americans; if anything, Republicans are now pushing President Joe Biden to do more to counter Russian aggression. (Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said last weekend that “the vast majority of the Republican Party writ large, both in Congress and across the country” was “totally behind the Ukrainians,” urging Biden to be “bolder.”) Still, Young sees pro-Kremlin commentary in America’s right-wing media as consistent with a trend of sympathy for Putin that was visible among Republicans during the presidency of Barack Obama and that became much more pronounced as Trump rose to power. Now, however, Young reckons that at least some Republicans may be rediscovering their older, Cold War intuitions about Russia—as the “liberal nationalism” Ukrainians are modeling incites new thinking about patriotism, national interest, and international cooperation across the United States and around the world. ——— Graham Vyse: How would you describe the coverage of the war in U.S. conservative media? Cathy Young: Well, it’s not uniform. A large share of America’s conservative media is pro-Ukraine and anti-Putin. Conservative publications like Commentary and National Review, for instance, have been overwhelmingly aligned with mainstream sentiment on this issue. But there is a prominent segment of the populist or pro-Trump media that’s either actively pro-Putin or, at the very least, anti-anti-Putin. Their view is that Putin might be bad, but so are all the terrible neoconservatives who oppose him—and also that Ukraine is bad, and the U.S. really shouldn’t be supporting it. Tucker Carlson, who brands himself as a nationalist-populist and is the highest-rated host on Fox News, may be the most prominent media figure advancing this narrative. Vyse: What was Carlson’s coverage of Russia and Ukraine like before the invasion? [Advertisement]( Advertisement Young: He’s been doing a fair amount of cheerleading for Putin for a while. A few years ago, in an exchange on his show, he said, “Why do I care what is going on in the conflict between Ukraine and Russia? I’m serious. Why shouldn’t I root for Russia? Which I am.” He tried to walk that back—saying he was joking and that the only country he roots for is the U.S.—but it was more than a joke. He’s consistently disparaged Ukraine. He’s also had Richard Hanania on, a very strange character. [Hanania is the president of the Center for the Study of Partisanship and Ideology and a former research fellow at Columbia University’s Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies.] Hanania really cherry-picks information and talks about how Ukraine has been doing all sorts of undemocratic things like shutting down certain opposition parties. Of course, Ukraine has been in a very complicated situation: For eight years, Russia has essentially been waging a low-level, undeclared war on its eastern border, and the Ukrainian government has taken some measures to, for instance, curb pro-Russian propaganda from Russian-language television stations in Ukraine. You can debate whether that’s illiberal, even in a semi-wartime situation, but it’s not as though Zelensky was simply trying to crack down on critics. We’re talking about TV stations that were trying to soften up the country for the kind of invasion we’ve now seen. Still, Carlson had Hanania on to talk about how Ukraine isn’t really a democracy. The most remarkable statements Carlson’s made were probably when he encouraged Americans to ask themselves, “Why do I hate Putin so much? Has Putin ever called me a racist? Has he threatened to get me fired for disagreeing with him? Has he shipped every middle-class job in my town to Russia? Did he manufacture a worldwide pandemic that wrecked my business and kept me indoors for two years? Is he teaching my children to embrace racial discrimination? Is he making fentanyl? Is he trying to snuff out Christianity? Does he eat dogs?” Carlson did try to backpedal somewhat after the invasion, but he was more or less back to being pro-Putin after a few days—essentially blaming Ukraine for defending itself. More from Cathy Young at The Signal: “A lot of American conservatives project their own beliefs and grievances onto Putin, casting him as a defender of traditional Christian culture, a defender of traditional sexual values, and a defender of traditional masculinity—a “trad” guy standing up for all the anti-“woke” values. Another factor is some conservatives’ desire to push back against liberals who promoted the idea of Trump colluding with Putin [in the 2016 U.S. presidential election]. There’s actually a perception among certain conservatives that the left is going after Putin as a way to go after Trump. It’s part of why these conservatives regard criticism of Putin with suspicion. Some see Ukraine as allied with the Democrats and the Ukrainian government as out to get Trump. There’s a sense out there that this whole Ukraine issue is a big anti-Trump conspiracy.” “This kind of sentiment percolated in the Obama years—a sense that Putin was a strong, macho leader who was much more competent and patriotic than Obama. Putin’s U.S. admirers believed he had confidence in his civilization—that he wanted to defend the values of his cultural heritage—as opposed to the American elites who were constantly trashing their own. But these ideas weren’t very mainstream in the U.S. until Trump came around.” “There’s a kind of paradox: Ukraine’s aspirations for independence from Russia are very much tied to a European identity. After all, one of the things that precipitated the Ukrainian Revolution of Dignity in 2014 was that Ukraine’s pro-Kremlin leader, Viktor Yanukovych, had gone back on a promise to sign a trade deal with the European Union, which many felt would put the country on a path to EU membership. A lot of conservatives are suspicious of that aspiration to be part of a larger European community, which they perceive as globalist.” ——— ——— Publishing in public beta since 2021, [The Signal]( explores urgent questions in current events around the world. To support The Signal and for full access: This email address is unmonitored; please send questions or comments [here](mailto:mail@thesgnl.com) To advertise with The Signal: advertise@thesgnl.com Add us to your [address book](mailto:newsletters@thesgnl.email) © 2022 The Signal The Signal | 717 N St. NW, Ste. One, Washington, DC 20011 [Unsubscribe {EMAIL}]( [Constant Contact Data Notice]( Sent by newsletters@thesgnl.email