The Trumps and many other right-wingers look to Russia as the model for what they'd like the US to be.
I know of no Republican who wants to model this country, economy, standard of living, or way of life after Russia. Now maybe Bernie does?
Trump went on stage (in Helsinki by the way) and sided with Putin over our own intelligence services. So even getting past his fawning love affair with dictators, he is quite literally incapable of admitting he’s wrong, so here we are. Putin and his actions have to be rationalized.
That historically makes sense, but the party has greatly changed. Trump and his followers love the Russian model and despise democracy and freedom. It seems strange to type it but it seems to be true.
You're thinking communism. What they want is the totalitarianism of Russia. And by they I mean Putin/Trump supporters and not general Republicans. Since there's a few decent ones left I don't want to say all.
Some folks don't understand that Russia isn't communist anymore. They are an autocratic crony capitalist kleptocracy. That appeals to a lot of right-wingers (like Tucker Carlson and the aforementioned Trumps).
You left off your list what amounts to an autocratic government which I think is what @dangolegators was referencing.
I think some wish they had a Putin like leader but keep the economy and standard of living. Given a choice of an autocrat they like or a democratic govt they don’t I suspect many would choose the former.
The fight for Mariupol is nearing its end. The city's fate could conceal war crimes evidence from the world - CNN
Unfortunately it isn’t likely to keep the standard of living with an autocrat. Eventually it goes off the rails, and Trump’s “trade wars” - which destroyed farmers and his handling the pandemic gave us a small taste of that with his Chavez-esq propaganda insanity bubble.
THe income disparity would only grow wider with the eventual disappearance of the middle class. A few super rich oligarchs and everyone else fighting for scraps....remind you of anywhere?
Turkey is going to ask for major concessions regarding the Kurds. Erdogan just called Sweden a hatchery for terrorists, so my guess is that he'd want Sweden to hand over the Kurdish activists in their country, and he'd probably want NATO members' blessings for operations against the Kurds in Syria and Iraq. I don't think there's procedure for kicking out a NATO member, and in any case Turkey is far more important than Sweden and Finland, Sweden in particular. They don't provide any more capability in terms of providing sites for missile defense systems or launchers, or guard the entrance to the Baltic or North Sea that other NATO countries don't already provide (e.g. Norway, Baltic nations). In Sweden's case its military is already pretty well integrated with NATO militaries as their most high tech weapons systems all need parts produced by NATO countries. Turkey, however, should they side with Russia will allow Russia an entrance into the Mediterranean Sea, and they have both Western and Russian weapons systems and has looked to induct Chinese weapons as well.
I get why we thought turkey was an important addition but I was always skeptical of their membership. A secular dictator in a Muslim country just feels antinato to me.
Someone suggested putting Israel in NATO. Oh that'd be interesting. Btw apparently Russia has been firing on Israeli planes in Syria. Wonder if that has anything to do with Israel being "against" Russia regarding Ukraine.
