76% of Republicans agree with Trump: Make friends with Russia

Anatoly Karlin
Russia Insider
Mon, 20 Nov 2017 12:01 UTC

© Steffen Kugler / Global Look Press

US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin

"In a sharp turnaround from the Cold War years, 79% of conservatives agree that it's better to be friends with Russia, but just 27% of liberals share that view."

This, ladies and gentlemen, is what you get when some badly out-of-touch Democratic operatives (Podesta and co., cough, cough) invent a bogus Russiagate hoax, and try to foist it on the American people.

It's the best thing that ever happened to Russia.

Recent Rasmussen poll:

... 52% of Likely U.S. Voters agree with the president's statement last Sunday that "... having Russia in a friendly posture, as opposed to always fighting with them, is an asset to the world, and an asset to our country, not a liability." Just 27% disagree, but another 21% are undecided.

Seventy-six percent (76%) of Republicans and 51% of voters not affiliated with either major party agree with the statement. Among Democrats, 29% agree; 41% disagree, and 29% are undecided. ...

In a sharp turnaround from the Cold War years, 79% of conservatives agree that it's better to be friends with Russia, but just 27% of liberals share that view.

I wrote about this as a return to pre-Soviet norms back in February:

For if you take the long historical view it is the Liberals/Left who have historically been far less enamored of Russia.

Who talked of the "gendarme of Europe" and "prison of peoples" in 19th century political discourse? Socialists, not conservatives. Marx had very little good to say about Russia and Eastern Europe in general, the idea being that the advanced Western nations were the only ones of interest from a Communist revolutionary perspective.

No, this doesn't appear to be on account of Republican/conservative infatuation with Putler, as /r/politics and the Blue Checkmarks would have you believe.

Opinion towards him remains extremely negative across the American political spectrum.

© Gallup

This is perhaps the one somewhat unexpected element in this picture:

Men feel much more strongly than women that it's better "having Russia in a friendly posture." Those under 40 are only slightly less likely than their elders to agree.

In contrast, the February 2017 poll found Republican opinions on Russia uniformly increasing with younger age groups, going from 31% positive/69% negative amongst the 65+ year olds to 73% positive/25% negative amongst the 18-29 year olds.

This implies that opinion towards Russia decreases with age amongst the younger non-Republican population. But that doesn't seem to tally with other polls I've seen. Or common sense. Older Democrats tend to be Clintonistas, and virulently Russophobic - they genuinely believe Putler stole the 2016 elections - while younger ones are lefty Bernie Bros, who don't exactly admire Russia, but are realistic enough to acknowledge that the KGB wasn't behind the KKK.

Comment: Considering the amount of aggressive and hysterical anti-Russian propaganda in the US, it is encouraging that 52% of likely US voters agree that it is a good idea to be friendly towards Russia. Of course, in a normal world, this should be a no-brainer - why would you want to confront another nuclear-armed and increasingly influential global superpower? - but we do not live in normal times.