title:  Republican Favorability Of Putin Goes Through The Roof Because Russia Helped Trump Win
text: This is disgraceful and totally un-American.Ronald Reagan is rolling in his grave after a new poll revealed that Republicans now see Russia as our friend and admire Vladimir Putin far more than we did just two years ago.A YouGov/Economist poll released in December shows that Putin s favorability has soared by 56 points among Republicans, likely bolstered by the fact that Russia helped Donald Trump win the election in November. Clearly, Republicans can be bought by murderous dictators as long as that dictator helps their party seize power.Trump specifically asked the Russians to continue meddling in our political process and they did. Trump has since stacked his cabinet with pro-Russia nominees and Republicans have joined Trump in defending Russia despite a CIA assessment concluding that Russia did interfere in our election to help Trump.Putin s net favorability among Republicans now stands at -10 percent, up significantly from the -66 in 2014. Democrats, meanwhile, still despise Putin.Um, wow Net favorability of Putin:Democrats July 2014: -54 Dec 2016: -62Republicans July 2014: -66 Dec 2016: -10(YouGov/Economist)  Will Jordan (@williamjordann) December 14, 2016Here is Republicans and Democrats on Vladimir Putin since July 2014. pic.twitter.com/s4I6FY5cbt  Will Jordan (@williamjordann) December 14, 2016In addition, Republicans now see Russia as a friend. Again, apparently it is easy to draw Republicans to the dark side. If Russia had rigged our political process decades ago, that whole Cold War thing would not have happened because Russia would have had a puppet in the White House long before now.It s not just Putin.Here are perceptions about whether Russia is a friend to the US or not, since 2011. pic.twitter.com/CrtVEB4Vws  Will Jordan (@williamjordann) December 14, 2016As a net rating, the  friendly  rating for Russia among Republicans has swung from low of -75 in 2014 to -21 today. https://t.co/PrbOLQFY5a  Will Jordan (@williamjordann) December 14, 2016That s also a 54-point swing from two years ago.It is absolutely deplorable to watch the Republicans Party bend over for Putin just because Russia helped their party win the election. If anything, Republicans should be outraged and concerned.Trump will now be a puppet who owes Russia favors. Trump has since chosen a close friend of Putin s as Secretary of State and wants to end sanctions against Russia. Trump also expressed his intention to possibly abandon NATO, which would open the door for Russia to be more aggressive toward Europe with no United States to challenge them.The only reason why Republicans are fawning over Russia and Putin is because they would not have won the White House without their assistance. This is a sad time for our country. The political party that once saw Russia as our mortal enemy is now happy to be in Putin s pocket. And that means we can expect more Russian meddling in 2020 unless the GOP and Trump face consequences.Featured image of Donald Trump by Joe Raedle/Getty, image of Vladimir Putin by Thierry Chesnot/Getty