The thing that gets me about all this is that if Obama or Bill Clinton (or Hillary or John Kerry or Al Gore if they'd been elected) had behaved this way towards Putin or any earlier Russian leader, like Yeltsin, the GOP would be screaming bloody murder, openly calling them a traitor to the United States, and calling for their immediate removal from office by any means necessary. But since it's Trump, the GOP has offered nothing more than muted criticism - meaningless words followed by...nothing. And, among his followers, there has actually been support and even admiration for Putin. I believe that Franklin Graham praised Putin as some kind of defender of "Christian beliefs" or some such.
The hypocrisy here is complete. For decades the GOP right-wing has engaged in dark conspiracy fantasies about liberals being secret stooges of Soviet/Russian dictators that are hostile to our way of life. Yet here we are, in 2018, and it is the right wing's dream POTUS who faces serious accusations of colluding with Russians to undermine our election system, for having a bromance with a Russian dictator, and for undermining our relationships with our closest allies on behalf of the Russians. Not LibDems, but all those superpatriot right-wingers. And his followers seem to approve of it.
remember when republicans fucking flipped out because Obama bowed or some shit
There are exactly two possible explanations for the shameful performance the world witnessed on Monday, from a serving American president.
Either Donald Trump is flat-out an agent of Russian interests—witting, unwitting, from fear of blackmail, in hope of future deals, out of manly respect for Vladimir Putin, out of gratitude for Russia's help during the election, out of pathetic inability to see beyond his 306 electoral votes—whatever the exact mixture of motives might be, it doesn't really matter.
Or he is so profoundly ignorant, insecure, and narcissistic not to realize that, at every step, he was advancing the line that Putin hoped he would advance, and the line that the American intelligence, defense, and law-enforcement agencies most dreaded.
Conscious tool. Useful idiot. Those are the choices, though both possibly true—the main question is the proportions.
But her emails... or uranium one... or Clinton Foundation... Or some other contrived bullshit.They don't approve of it, they just don't care. For Trumpets, it is all about power acquisition at any cost. Trump has acquired them a voice, and so it really doesn't matter what he does as long as they voted for him. It is a sad self confirming bias, that isn't going to go away no matter how idiotic trump acts.
Strong words.
There will be no action taken.
"Conscious tool. Useful idiot. Those are the choices, though both possibly true—the main question is the proportions."
They don't approve of it, they just don't care. For Trumpets, it is all about power acquisition at any cost. Trump has acquired them a voice, and so it really doesn't matter what he does as long as they voted for him. It is a sad self confirming bias, that isn't going to go away no matter how idiotic trump acts.
Strong words.
There will be no action taken.
Trump owns the GOP now. A handful like McCain will make some noise, but based on their actions (or non-actions) of the past 18 months, it's highly doubtful that Congressional Republicans will do anything meaningful. They're all terrified of their own base, especially after what happened to Mark Sanford in his primary. The only way some of them might start turning on Trump is if the GOP takes a real beating in this year's elections. That might scare enough of them to try to do something other than talk, but even then I don't think Trump's base will turn on him, so most Republican pols will still stick with Trump.
Any Republican who turns on Trump risks losing a primary. Trump is as popular among Republicans now as Bush was right after 9/11. Republicans will not turn on him. Even if there is a Blue Wave, the rationale will be that Republicans lost because Trump wasn't on the ballot. They'll stack harder to him in 2020, especially because they'll be more embolden in the Democrats take control of the House and/or Senate. Even the Republicans critical of Trump can't resist voting against Dems in charge.