We didn’t think this needed to be said, but Russian President Vladimir Putin is a thug, a bad leader, and a murderer. He is the dictator of a second-rate country that’s only able to bully other nations because of its nuclear weapons and only able to survive economically because of its vital oil and natural gas reserves. Putin is not above killing his dissenters or really anyone who is an inconvenience. He brought about this Ukraine war in what may have been a serious miscalculation of what the West would do in response. (Considering who’s at the helm in America, he might be justified in believing that the rest of Europe would do nothing.)

He is not a paragon of conservative virtue for Americans to emulate. And yet there are a few Americans who point to this thug’s policies on family values, preserving Russian culture and traditions, and fervent love for his country as qualities to emulate.

This is a very shallow point of view that makes of mockery of what being a Russian under Putin’s rule is really like. In National Review, Joseph S. Laughon proceeds to extirpate these arguments in favor of “Putinism.” On Putin’s so-called “family” or “traditional” values, Laughon points to the high abortion rate, low church attendance, and lack of religious beliefs of any kind (both thanks to communist policies). On preserving Russian culture, Putin’s love of country cannot be denied. After all, it’s his own little empire that he exploits at will to enrich his own pockets. Why wouldn’t he wish to expand that “love” (i.e. power, wealth, and influence) to Ukraine and other former Soviet Bloc countries?

It’s all too easy to look at our own cultural decay being helped along by leftist policies and media brainwashing and think that maybe Putin’s “qualities” are a boon. This is just as misguided as BLM choosing George Floyd as its martyr.

Leftists have had a field day with the small cadre of right-wingers who are praising Putin. It’s provided great fodder for the news cycle churn — fodder that has been so easy for the media to manipulate and further defame conservatives in general. Hillary Clinton, the architect of the Russia collusion hoax, felt bold enough to criticize right-wingers who praised any part of Putin. Yet when it comes to anything Russia, Clinton would probably be wiser to keep her head down.

Russia itself is gleefully looking at this division in the American ranks and will happily exploit it. China, which has eyes on Taiwan, is also watching how we in the West handle the invasion of Ukraine.

Let’s not make it so easy for the Marxists and Maoists. Championing Putin as any sort of worthy leader should not be up for debate. He should be denounced universally.

Exit quote from South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham: “Is there a Brutus in Russia? Is there a more successful Colonel Stauffenberg in the Russian military? The only way this ends is for somebody in Russia to take this guy out. You would be doing your country — and the world — a great service.”