This is what’s going on. I really don’t understand how it’s not very obvious to everyone that the entire Republican party has been infiltrated by the Russians.
What If they haven't really been "infiltrated", though, in the conventional sense? What if they are deliberately inviting the Russian Influence in, because they like the Russian model of Capitalism better than ours?
I believe they are trying to build an Oligarchy here, on purpose, because they are planning to become the oligarchs.
I'm kinda more in this camp. I think Russia and the GOP are working together (kinda hard to live through 2016 without believing that on some level) but does that mean that Russian intelligence has "flipped" the GOP? I don't think so.
I think it's more of a convergent goals kinda situation. I think one of the things that the GOP wants to do to American politics is turn it into a open moneymaking venture. Not saying that it isn't defacto already there, but it is still looked down upon and technically criminal behavior to accept bribes and the like. Matters of enforcement aside.
Not only is that kind of blatent corruption already prevalent in Russian politics, Russia for there part would love a united states that they could just bribe to get off their back. The GOP is trying to comodify American politics and by consequence American power abroad and Russia is looking to be their number one customer.
Does that mean that Trump gets marching orders daily from Putin? No, probably not. There's probably some level of communication between them, but I doubt any of that takes the form of any kind of directives or anything.
Lindsay Graham was never a decent person. I hate Trump but he’s done some amusing stuff over the last few years. Completely making Cruz and Graham debase themselves comes to mind
Lindsey Graham was never a decent human being. He just had bouts of openly verbalized rationality previously. Now he simply keeps it all to himself only openly toeing what the party line changes to.
But that's all that matters, since the party has become such a cult of blind obedience and "if you're not with us you're against us" hive mind that even if there are any of them with a shred of decency, they don't dare step out of line and speak up, lest they immediately get ousted.
It is obvious to everyone, which is why several key democracies around the world are funnelling billions into the only country actively fighting Russia. The US is using it's own intelligence and command functions to help guide Ukraine in what to fight and where. Russia is being overthrown and their arrogant invasion is how Putin will lose a tremendous amount of credibility worldwide.
Russian military tech has been proven to be substandard when compared to literally any other arms manufacturing nation except China and India. German, Swedish, UK, French, and US weapons are being used against Russia to incredible effect and showing other national leaders how ineffective Russian weapons are. This means far fewer nations will field Russian tech and gear.
Russian without the illusion of power will have some serious internal upsets, like the recent Wagner and rebel uprisings. Whoever replaces Putin will not renew those conservative back channels because those relationship are contingent on being an international asshole, which a new leader can't afford to be.
So don't worry about the long term effects since Russia may not be here for long. Everyone does see Russia being an international asshole and it's the reason they are losing their war.
Don't forget that Russia still has some very powerful assets, like nuclear material, nuclear technology, and a veto at the UN. And Russia's native amounts of oil, fertilizer, and grain means it's really hard for a lot of smaller countries to side against Russia.
The current sanctions allow many of these countries to turn a nice profit by reselling russian products and energy ressources. The western countries are aware, but hesistant to enforce the sanctions there too, as otherwise it'd cause more conflict.
The US has a lost a lot of soft power over the course of the Trump presidency and the key benefactors are Russia and China. If the US had more credibility it could convince more countries to stand on Ukraines side.