Putin gives men who feel powerless and ideologically intimidated in modern society an excuse to exercise their most basic power: physical strength and intimidation.
For the sake of argument, let’s assume Trump’s puppet masters are in cahoots with Russia and Vladimir Putin. If you’re not comfortable making that leap, then the mere fact that a large part of the Republican Party base likes Vladimir Putin more than Obama or Clinton demands the question: Why do republicans like Vladimir Putin?
To begin, we’re once again forced to remind ourselves that humans are animals, and therefore the more accurate question is: Why are republicans so turned on by, or attracted to Putin? What does he give republicans they feel they need?
With that tweak, the answer reveals itself.
“Manly Putin” memes have circled the Internet for years. Through time they made it deep into Republicanland psyche: he represents the very thing GOP men feel was stripped of them by Obama and an ever-more progressive society: a manly man. Putin loving republicans want a leader who makes them feel manly because President Obama and gender equality emasculated them.
The Emasculation of the GOP
Obama made it cool have an IQ higher than the number of pounds you can bench press. He spoke of acceptance of race, religion and gender. And as president, his manliness didn’t hide in the cowboy swagger of GW, or the compensating squinty-eyed look of a beta male taking a photo holding a large gun. Obama’s manliness is in the “No Drama Obama” attitude that the most of the world came to admire.
The GOP’s initial response to President Obama entering the White House was to create the Tea Party and do testosterone-driven things: show off their guns, make noise, threaten and chest pound into the Fox “News” cameras – manly men doing manly things that were designed to scare away the intruder who wandered into their territory.
But Obama didn’t take the bait.
And so they got louder and more vile…
… and still, Obama didn’t take the bait.
Obama’s non-response to their primitive territory defense tantrums drove the GOP base crazy.1 Eventually, it made them feel powerless, because the intruder didn’t leave the watering hole – he didn’t even act scared. Emasculating a primate isn’t always about physically taking away their power, it’s also about showing them they have no power over you.
Pile onto their ineffective tantrums a swift increase of marriage and gender equality laws, and for the first time in history the average republican male found himself feeling confused and a bit scared.
The GOP Taps Its Masculinity From The Anti-Obama: Vladimir Putin
Onto the scene struts Russia and its men so manly they either wrestle bears or look like them. Republican men who feel lost in a gender equality world look to Russia and drool with envy: Putin embodies the masculinity, power, and explicit gender boundaries they wish they had. It’s not unlike their desire to be a wealthy man married to a supermodel, and therefore voting such a thing into the White House.
Putin is the physical and philosophical opposite of Obama, even more so than Donald Trump. Putin gives men who feel powerless and ideologically intimidated in modern society an excuse to exercise their most basic power: physical strength and intimidation.
Vladimir Putin justifies acting more like Man and less like Civilian… that’s something men in Republicanland will always desire.
1 Some might claim literally. back
