Reich nails Republicans for mirroring Putin’s anti-LGBTQ+ 'fixation'

25 July 2023

Former United States Labor Secretary and Carmel P. Friesen Professor of Public Policy at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley Robert Reich on Tuesday laid out the parallels between the anti-LGBTQ+ policies of Russian President Vladimir Putin and those of former President Donald Trump's Republican Party.

Putin signed a law on Monday banning gender-affirming care that also "annuls marriages in which one person has 'changed gender' and bars transgender people from becoming foster or adoptive parents," The Guardian reported.

In less than three minutes, Reich detailed how little daylight exists when Putin's legislation and GOP proposals are compared.

"Why do Putin and the Republican Party sound so much alike? Simple. Their culture wars have similar agendas. Both are trying to distract attention from the economic looting by their respective oligarchies," Reich began.

"Vladimir Putin has been blasting so-called cancel culture," Reich said. "This was his third cancel culture rant in recent months. It's the same imaginary crisis that Trump and the GOP have been ranting about for several years. The goal of cancel culture is to make decent Americans live in fear of being fired, expelled, shamed."

Reich noted that "Tucker Carlson, one of Fox News's most infamous personalities accuses liberals of trying to cancel all sorts of things because if it could happen to Dr. Seuss, it might happen to you. Dr. Seuss went from being a beloved childhood author to worse than Hitler in just a matter of days last fall."

Reich recalled that "Putin argued that teaching children about different gender identities was quote, 'On the verge of a crime against humanity.' Putin's fixation on LGBTQ people is also echoed on the American right. Republican state legislators are attacking trans people and restricting discussion of gender and sexual orientation in schools and in Texas."

Reich continued, "While Putin's MO has been to fuel Russian ethnic pride and nationalism, America's right-wing has been fueling white nationalism. To conclude from all of this that authoritarians think alike misses a deeper truth. Putin, Trump, Carlson, and America's right-wing have been promoting the same narrative for the same reason. Manufacturing fears of 'the other' to distract from where all the wealth and power have gone — all the way to the top."

Reich added, "Remember, Putin was put into power by a Russian oligarchy, made fabulously rich by siphoning off and privatizing the wealth of the former Soviet Union. Likewise, Trump and the radical right in America have been bankrolled by an American oligarchy, Rupert Murdoch, Charles Koch, Rebecca Mercer, Peter Thiel, and other billionaires. Sowing racism, homophobia, and transphobia creates life-or-death dangers for many people in our society. For both Putin and the American right, it serves to divert attention from the economic plunder by the ultra-rich."

Watch below or at this link.

View The Guardian's analysis here.

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