Members of the Republican Party in the United States are likely to be experiencing a great deal of anxiety over reports of successful military counter-offensives in the Ukraine and of political leaders in St. Petersburg Russia calling for Putin to be charged with treason for mismanagement of his "special military operation" in the Ukraine. If the trend of Russian political leaders seeking to hold Putin to account turns into a prevailing trend all across Russia, and Putin is ultimately removed from power, the fallout could end up destroying the Republican Party in the United States. Naturally, GOP leaders would hope that Putin's replacement would be sympathetic to their goal of destroying American Democracy and creating a puppet oligarchy where politicians are effectively actors, and all elections and voting are entirely pro-forma while real power is held by a board of Libertarian billionaires. Unfortunately, that path has led to serious consequences for Russia, and it's likely that Putin's replacement may try to re-establish ties with the US by restoring policies of the Gorbachev era, and in seeking to demonstrate good faith towards the US and to have financial sanctions against Russia dropped, a new Russian government may choose to abandon Putin's policies. Such an outcome would be disastrous for the GOP, as it would result in a loss of at least some financial and election-propaganda support, and the potential for greater disclosure of just how compromised Donald Trump, and by extension today's GOP really are.
The Russian government provides financial support to the GOP through the use of shell companies owned by Russian nationals who then make contributions to GOP Super-PACs. Several cases of GOP activists funneling money to Republican candidates and the Trump campaign have surfaced in the last four years. Although we have no way of knowing exactly how much financial support the Russian government has provided to the GOP since 2016, there is a widespread belief that the amount may be substantial. A Vanity Fair article from 2018 reported that the NRA spent $30 Million to help get Trump elected, and suggested much of that funding came from Russia. Russian Oligarch Andrey Muraviev has also been indicted and linked to a scheme to distribute funds to GOP candidates.
There has never been a full disclosure of just how much money the Trump organization owes to Russian banks, or what kinds of "barter" Trump may have tried to arrange with the Putin regime in exchange for loan forgiveness. Since the disclosure that Trump had taken boxes of classified documents to his Florida estate, social media has been electric with speculations that he may have been providing "intelligence information in lieu of payment" to the Putin regime. As that story has developed, Republicans have demonstrated their sycophantic devotion to Trump by insisting that Trump had "absolute unilateral declassification authority" or that the matter was merely a "storage issue" and that he could not be charged. If Putin were to be replaced, and the new government, eager to curry favor with the Biden Administration were to disclose that Trump was in fact providing sensitive national security information to the Russian government, it would be a definitive demonstration that the Republican Party is a critical threat to national security, and likely lead to calls from foreign governments that have traditionally allied themselves with the US to remove Trump loyalists from all positions of authority, or face severe economic, political and military sanctions.
There are numerous other concerns for the GOP besides the two issues addressed here. I will just mention in passing issues such as the full range of Russian interference in the 2016 and 2020 Presidential elections, the full details on the trip by eight Republican Senators to Moscow on the 4th of July, and exactly what communications occurred between Rudy Giuliani and Republican Senators during the time that Giuliani was in Ukraine meeting with Russian loyalists trying to gin up conspiracy theories about Hunter Biden's laptop. One could spend several days reading news stories from the past five years and recognizing potential concerns to be visited on the GOP if the Putin regime falls. Loss of financial support and disclosure of the full range of Donald Trump's compromise, is just the beginning.
If you enjoyed this essayPlease consider purchasing a copy of my book
Comments
Post a Comment