A year ago, a large majority of Republicans supported Ukraine and opposed the Russian invasion. That should hardly come as a surprise; most GOP voters grew up during the Cold War, and they viewed the Russians as the longstanding historical enemy. Today, however, only about half of the GOP thinks we should be sending money and weapons to Ukraine. The reason for that is a single man: Tucker Carlson.
The GOP base is so emotionally tied to Fox News in general, and Carlson in particular, that it is prepared to ignore a lifetime of conditioning and embrace Putin. My observations about this are as follows:
- While I still think DeSantis has made a tactical error by chasing Trump’s voters instead of the remainder of the Republican electorate, you can understand why he would accept the Trump/Carlson view of the war.
- You can also understand why Putin won’t give up on the war. Why should he, when Carlson and the GOP right might deliver Ukraine to him on a silver platter in 2025?