Is Russia More Right Wing Than The US?

[Formaldehyde]

The Daily Show recently had a segment about how right wing Russia is.

They have a 13% flat tax, no deficit, and the highest level of wealth disparity in the world. They prefer Christian immigrants to Muslims and “in just 25 years they figured out the free market and institutionalized xenophobia”. Some of them even complain about "feminist power" due to having so many female legislators under Soviet rule. They have employers who force their employees to attend their own private bible studies. They can even fire them if they don't believe in Jesus, if they are adulterers, had a baby out of wedlock, or even had an abortion. There are even companies with the own private churches. Then there is the matter of same sex marriage and the vilification of homosexuals...

Even Pat Buchanan seems convinced that Putin is a paleoconservative like him:

Is Vladimir Putin a paleoconservative?

In the culture war for mankind’s future, is he one of us?

While such a question may be blasphemous in Western circles, consider the content of the Russian president’s state of the nation address.

With America clearly in mind, Putin declared, “In many countries today, moral and ethical norms are being reconsidered.”

“They’re now requiring not only the proper acknowledgment of freedom of conscience, political views and private life, but also the mandatory acknowledgment of the equality of good and evil.”

Translation: While privacy and freedom of thought, religion and speech are cherished rights, to equate traditional marriage and same-sex marriage is to equate good with evil.

No moral confusion here, this is moral clarity, agree or disagree.

President Reagan once called the old Soviet Empire “the focus of evil in the modern world.” President Putin is implying that Barack Obama’s America may deserve the title in the 21st century.

Nor is he without an argument when we reflect on America’s embrace of abortion on demand, homosexual marriage, pornography, promiscuity, and the whole panoply of Hollywood values.

Our grandparents would not recognize the America in which we live.

Moreover, Putin asserts, the new immorality has been imposed undemocratically.

The “destruction of traditional values” in these countries, he said, comes “from the top” and is “inherently undemocratic because it is based on abstract ideas and runs counter to the will of the majority of people.”

Does he not have a point?

Unelected justices declared abortion and homosexual acts to be constitutionally protected rights. Judges have been the driving force behind the imposition of same-sex marriage. Attorney General Eric Holder refused to enforce the Defense of Marriage Act.

America was de-Christianized in the second half of the 20th century by court orders, over the vehement objections of a huge majority of a country that was overwhelmingly Christian.

And same-sex marriage is indeed an “abstract” idea unrooted in the history or tradition of the West. Where did it come from?

Peoples all over the world, claims Putin, are supporting Russia’s “defense of traditional values” against a “so-called tolerance” that is “genderless and infertile.”

Putin says his mother had him secretly baptized as a baby and professes to be a Christian. And what he is talking about here is ambitious, even audacious.

He is seeking to redefine the “Us vs. Them” world conflict of the future as one in which conservatives, traditionalists and nationalists of all continents and countries stand up against the cultural and ideological imperialism of what he sees as a decadent west.

“We do not infringe on anyone’s interests,” said Putin, “or try to teach anyone how to live.” The adversary he has identified is not the America we grew up in, but the America we live in, which Putin sees as pagan and wildly progressive.

Do you think there is any basis to this comparison?

 

[Aleksey_aka_al]

They have employers who force their employees to attend their own private bible studies. They can even fire them if they don't believe in Jesus, if they are adulterers, had a baby out of wedlock, or even had an abortion.

They prefer Christian immigrants to Muslims and “in just 25 years they figured out the free market and institutionalized xenophobia”.

There are a looooot of immigrants and migrant workers from post-Soviet Muslim countries. A lot more than from Christian ones.

The first thing an anti-Putinist usually tell, when asked what's wrong with the current authority, is exactly this: too much people of Muslim/Asiatic origin everywhere. And when you ask such person whether he would do the job migrants do (street cleaning, building, etc) he has nothing to say.

The most popular slogan of the street opposition leader Mr. Navalny was "Stop feeding Caucasus!"

 

[Joecoolyo]

Knowing very little about Russian politics except for the rhetoric they use on the international stage, I'd say yes, they are very "right-wing" (conservative is a better word).

 

[caketastydelish]

Probably, but only by a liberal elitist standard is that necessarily a bad thing.

 

[History_Buff]

Did anyone really think the answer was 'yes'?

e: I meant 'no', but apparently I'm a big idiot.

 

[BvBPL]

The Daily Show recently had a segment about how right wing Russia is.

This is exactly what I have been saying, I am pleased that you've come around to my way of thinking.

However, your conversion to BvBPLism isn't complete. The implication that employer-mandated religious activities is somehow conservative is a mistaken conflation of religion and conservatism as demonstrably liberal organizations mandate the same activity.

Seeing as your commitment is BvBPLism is not yet total, I'd like to ask you to join me for lunch in Room 101 so that we can further discuss your thoughts. I have some very persuasive rodents that I'd like you to meet.

 

[Lone Wolf]

Depending on your definition of "right-wing". The strange American ideology known as "right-wing libertarianism" is almost unknown in Russia, but, since the US is an imperial power, and Russia is a wannabe imperial power, there're similarities indeed. As noted, both countries have their "immigrant issues". Putin does have supporters among the European New Right and people like Buchanan.

Buchanan isn't really correct when he talks about Christianity, Paganism and whatnot. ROC's position in Russian society is different from the position Protestant and the Catholic churches in that the closer to government it becomes, the more it becomes a State department. I don't think that people like him would appreciate this.

As for "neo-Stalinism" and "Cold war" - meh. First time as tragedy, second time as farce. And regarding the fashos - like I said, less significant then they are portrayed, more significant then they should be.

 

[Dachs]

ROC's position in Russian society is different from the position Protestant and the Catholic churches in that the closer to government it becomes, the more it becomes a State department. I don't think that people like him would appreciate this.

i for one welcome our overlords from the holy synod

 

[woody60707]

It's pretty narrow minded to judge any group of people on a one dimensional scale.

 

[Lone Wolf]

i for one welcome our overlords from the holy synod

 

[Veles]

Atone while you can, sinners.

 

[Kyriakos]

I want to emigrate to Russia

 

[red_elk]

Atone while you can, sinners.

Or else

 

[gay_Aleks]

If this guy was your pastor, ya ain't gonna miss a single Sunday church service, you sucker!

 

[Cutlass]

Russia has been right wing since at least when Stalin died.

 

[Quackers]

You have to credit Pat Buchanan. Speaks with clarity and doesn't feel constrained by political correctness.

 

[Harv]

If this guy was your pastor, ya ain't gonna miss a single Sunday church service, you sucker!

I was trying to drink my drink my coffee while reading this.

Where is the snarf emote?

 

[civvver]

On a full spectrum political scale isn't fascism on the far right while pure communism is on the far left? Aren't they diametrically opposed? So yes, I'd say Russia is more right wing and closer to fascism than the us.

And conservative doesn't mean right wing in those terms. Conservative means wanting to conserve the values of the past instead of changing things to suit the future. True political conservatives in the US value the constitution and the guidelines and intentions of the framers of the US political system.

And I've been saying for years, a flat tax is the US is not a conservative policy (where's the constitutional basis for it?) and is a terrible idea. Herman Cain's 999 plan was one of the stupidest things I've ever heard.

 

[NovaKart]

Who's that really effeminate guy who's a VJ on a Russian TV channel? I saw him on TV sometimes when I was in Georgia, this was back several years ago. It was a Russian channel, not Georgian.

 

[Borachio]

On a full spectrum political scale isn't fascism on the far right while pure communism is on the far left? Aren't they diametrically opposed?

Well... hmm... doesn't quite work like that, I don't think.

It's true that fascism and communism aren't the same by any means, but I don't think you can say they're diametrically opposed. Any more than cheese is diametrically opposite to chess.

Aren't they both, or haven't they both been, totalitarian regimes?

Don't they both feature the "Big Other"? (My lack of knowledge of psychoanalysis is only equalled by that of politics.)

Still, perhaps you're defining fascism and communism in some special non-historical way that I don't know about.