The progressive, warmongering left is intent on getting Americans to support sending unlimited levels of aid to Ukraine to help them repel Russia’s invasion. In fact, the opinion-molders on the far left have pulled out all the stops to cajole, convince, and shame people into believing that the United States has a vested interest in being involved in this foreign military conflict.
New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristoff wrote an op-ed on Friday showing just how far the left is willing to go to push Ukraine’s agenda in the United States.
In the piece, Kristoff cynically exploited the death of Russian dissident Aleksei Navalny to attack those on the right who oppose sending massive amounts of aid to Ukraine.
READ: Alexei Navalny, Martyr for Russian Democracy, Dies in Prison Aged 47
The author began by taking aim at former President Donald Trump and journalist Tucker Carlson for their supposed affection for Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Navalny’s strength, resilience and courage contrast with the fecklessness of so many Americans dealing with Putin. From Donald Trump to Tucker Carlson, a remarkable number of American leaders and their mouthpieces roll over before the Russian president.
“Why do Trump and his congressional enablers want to further appease this Russian tyrant?” Senator Dick Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, asked after the news broke of Navalny’s death.
Later in the piece, Kristoff went after Carlson for interviewing Putin “without even asking a single question about Navalny,” and posited that “it was such a softball interview that Putin professed exasperation at the deference and said he wished he’d been asked sharper questions.”
The author also blasted Carlson for his “promotional tour of Putin’s Russia,” in which he made sparkling compliments about Moscow and its subway system. Carlson’s praise of the city’s grocery stores was also an issue.
And grocery shopping? It’s a bargain! Carlson goes shopping in Moscow, spends less money than he expects and says the experience radicalized him against America’s leaders. He doesn’t seem to understand that Russians spend four times as much of their income on food as Americans, and that prices are cheap because Russia is a poor country with a weak currency.
The columnist lamented the supposed prevalence of pro-Putin attitudes on the right and blamed the Orange Man What Is Bad™ for this supposed affection for an authoritarian leader. As evidence, he pointed to Trump’s comment that “he might invite Russia to attack NATO allies who did not pay enough for arms.”
Then, Kristoff made his ultimate sales pitch after highlighting Russia’s attacks against its neighbors and brutal violations of human rights.
That is the Russia that Navalny stood against. And that is the Russia that too many Americans have buttressed by opposing aid to Ukraine.
To sum it all up, Kristoff sought to paint the right as mindless Putin supporters led by the likes of Donald Trump and Tucker Carlson, and to make us out to be the enemy because we don’t think it’s a good idea to send billions of taxpayer dollars to aid in Ukraine’s war effort.
But, as is typical of progressives, Kristoff’s arguments do not match the actual facts. Let’s start with attitudes toward Russia on the right. In May 2023, the Pew Research Center published the findings of a poll showing that the majority of Republicans don’t exactly have a favorable view toward Russia, with 61 percent indicating a negative opinion of the country’s government.
Both Democrats and Republicans have also grown somewhat less negative on Russia over the past year, even after negative views of Russia increased markedly between 2020 and 2022. Two-thirds of Republicans and 72% of Democrats had very unfavorable views of Russia in 2022. This year, deeply unfavorable sentiment declined 6 points among each partisan group – a statistically significant drop. Other Pew Research Center surveys have found that Republicans especially are less likely to see the war between Russia and Ukraine as a major threat to U.S. interests than they were in the early months of the conflict, and an increasing share says the U.S. provides too much support to Ukraine.
Even further, the survey also revealed that 63 percent of Republicans view Russia “as an enemy.” About 33 percent indicated that Russia is a “competitor.” Only a paltry two percent saw Russia as a “partner.”
So, it turns out that most on the right are not Putin sycophants no matter how badly Kristoff’s ilk wants to believe it.
Even further, the notion that Trump is fond of Putin is also ridiculous. Kristoff pointed to the former president’s complimentary rhetoric toward the Russian leader. But it is clear this was more of a diplomatic tactic than sincerely held affection. Indeed, Putin recently told reporters that he would rather have President Joe Biden in the White House instead of Trump. The reasons why seem obvious when you take into account Trump’s policy toward Russia when he was the president.
However, perhaps Putin truly would rather have Biden in office than Trump. While he was in office, his rhetoric toward the Russian regime was quite different from his actions against the Kremlin. He refused to lift sanctions on the Kremlin that were put into place because of its 2014 invasion of Crimea. Trump even imposed more sanctions during his tenure in office. Moreover, the former president allowed the sale of weapons to Ukraine, a move that even Barack Obama refused to do.
Trump also approved missile strikes in Syria that targeted Russia’s allies. These strikes killed “a couple of hundred Russians,” according to former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
The former president brought this up when he responded to Putin’s remarks.
During a speech in South Carolina, Trump embraced Putin’s preference for Biden by calling it a “great compliment,” while touting his hardline stance against the Kremlin while he was in office.
Of course, Kristoff knows all of this. The thing about these progressive opinion-molders is that they don’t actually believe much of what they say.
The reality is that Kristoff and his ilk are engaging in widespread deception, peddling false narratives to push an agenda. In this case, they are promoting Ukraine’s priorities rather than America’s.
