Chronicles
It seems that National Review Editor Rich Lowry never tires of carrying water for the sponsors of his magazine, whether it’s the high-tech giants who help pay his gargantuan salary, or his neoconservative donors, whom he also faithfully serves. Most recently he honored his patrons with a dutiful denunciation of Russian President Vladimir Putin entitled “Vladimir Putin Shouldn’t Be a Right-Wing Hero,” in which he offers this gem:
In recent years, there’s been a reversal in which Democrats who were consistently soft on Russia from the Cold War to Hillary Clinton’s attempted reset have become, at least rhetorically, much tougher-minded about Moscow, whereas elements of the American Right that once were the fiercest Cold Warriors have warmed up to Russia as Putin has grounded his autocracy in religion and social conservatism.
What Lowry fails to see, however, is that the changed attitude among those who were once the “fiercest Cold Warriors” battling Communist Russia is entirely understandable. Most of those on the right who opposed Soviet Communism felt sympathy for the Russian people and traditional Russian culture. In contrast to the zealots on the left who in their fevered imaginations are still fighting Nazi Germany, onetime anti-Communists opposed not a nation but a pernicious ideology. Thus, many anti-Communists of yesteryear quickly changed their attitude toward Russia once its post-Soviet leader turned out to be a man of the right.
