How did the Republicans go from "Better dead than red!" and "There's a bear in the woods!" to "I'd rather be Russian than a Democrat!"?

It's truly amazing isn't it. One of the things that I've noticed is that we've, in some ways, return to the situation of the Cold War. Once again, Russia is challenging the United States and is looking to increase its Global power through a network of alliances with Insurgent groups around the world. The difference now is mainly that the Russian government, and its allies, are right-wingers rather than left-wingers. In America as well we seem to have changed back to a sort of Cold War mentality. In this case, it is liberals who are the defense Hawks arguing strenuously against foreign interference in our domestic political situation. Conversely, we have Republicans acting as liberals did in the cold war, or rather in the manner of conservative stereotypes of how liberals acted. They are often apologizing, and sometimes welcoming the interference of, a hostile foreign government because it agrees with their political ideology.

As for how this happened, I think that's a much broader question. One element may be psychological. There's been a lot of work recently on how fundamental psychological differences may play in two political ideologies. Researchers have found broad psychological differences between conservatives and liberals. For our purposes one of these main differences is that conservatives tend to be more hierarchical and more deferential to Authority. What this means for the Embrace of Russia is that conservatives tend to take their cues from the leadership of the Republican party and the conservative movement. Since Donald Trump captured be Republican nomination for president he has become the leader of the Republican Party. Given the their psychological makeup, and their tendency toward deference to Authority, it is difficult for many conservatives to reject the pro-russian message which I keep hearing from Donald Trump. Of course, some of them do reject it, but it's something which is difficult to maintain overtime. Even people who may have initially been worried about the Russian interference in America's elections get ground down by repeated messages from Trump that Russia is good.

I think that another element of it is a change in the culture of conservative politics. A lot of people trace this to Newt Gingrich in the late 80s and early 90s and I think it's something that has been exacerbated by conservative media. Basically, one of gingrich's Innovations was to stop treating Democrats like they were the loyal opposition. There used to be a tradition in this country, and it's still somewhat observed by democrats, that your opponents were wrong on the issues but we're essentially good people who wanted the best for America. What Gingrich Hit Upon was that it was possible to energize people by arguing that Democrats and liberals were not only wrong about particular issues such as tax rates or social welfare spending but were bad people who had fundamentally evil ideas for how the country should be. This change in culture around how conservatives engaged with their opponents was exacerbated by conservative media. While conservative politicians have to govern common us may have an incentive to work across the aisle, conservative media merely wants to drawing viewers and one of the best ways to do that is through drama. The idea of conservatives as a righteous Force opposing evil liberals is much better conflict than very dry debates about what level of Taxation is best or how best to regulate pollution. I think that conservative media, conservative political culture, we're also shaped by the 9/11 attacks. This was an incredible shock to many Americans. Conservative Americans particular so America is locked in a existential conflict with Islam in general, and radical Islam in particular. In such a milieu, criticism of the government, which was then run by conservatives, became problematic. If you were questioning the actions of the George W bush regime then, too many conservatives, you seemed like you were a traitor to America. This language became commonplace among conservatives, with them frequently equating criticism of the administration with treason. The war on terror this further set up a paradigm where the Democrats were not merely people who had some bad policy ideas but we're fundamentally evil people who are undermining the nation.

I think that some of this was further heightened by the election of Barack Obama. While many people hope that this would Usher in a new era of racial inclusion, with some naive people even claiming that America was post-racial, for conservatives it seems to have that shirt in a new era of racial anxiety. Many of them seem to have become worried, in a way that they had before, about white people losing power in the United States. D Stark racial differences in the vote, with almost all non-white people voting for Democrats and majorities of whites voting for a republican, help strength in the division in conservative Minds between us and Them. For racially conscious conservatives politics became literally a matter of political identity with the stakes being the potential replacement of white people by black and brown chords.

All of these things, in my opinion, come together to create a conservative culture which sees their primary struggle in the world not as with a foreign country, or against major social issues such as the economy are Healthcare, but rather as being between conservatives and liberals. If you think the greatest challenge facing America is liberals then that can skew your thinking. Just as the United States was willing to Ally itself with horrible right-wing dictatorships in order to fight communism during the Cold War, many conservatives are willing to Ally themselves with horrible dictatorships in order to combat liberalism.

This whole idea of Republicans in including Trump collaborating with Russia was officially debunked earlier this year in the Mueller Report. Where have you been? You apparently just like the sound of this.

I still feel that way- Better Dead than Red (state).

The lack of political diversity in the GOP has left it in a morally bankrupt state.

The GOP used to be a reasonable, center right party.  Beginning in the 1980s, the party took a hard-right turn.  By 2012, they had driven almost everyone who is not an extremist out of the party. The Republican presidential primaries of that year featured 18 office seekers, all of whom claimed to be more of an ultra-conservative than the others. The few liberals and many moderates who once were GOP members were long gone.

Most of the remaining Republicans have fallen for Trump's efforts to build a Third World dictator style personality cult.  They want an autocratic strong man for a leader, not a president who follows the American values of democracy, human rights, and freedom.  Those GOP members view, and blindly support, Trump the way most North Koreans do Kim Jung Un.  The GOP needs to get back to many of its pre-1980s values. 

Simple.  Decades have gone by and in that time, the Russians stopped being Communists and the Democrats have moved a whole lot closer to communism!  Especially this year.

Could it be that Democrats now embrace Communism/Socialism with more passion than The Russians ever did?

I've seen your posts here...and find you to be a sensible person, for the most part.

The Right have a few "alt-Right" racists in the Party that need to go..and the Party is doing what it can to distance themselves from them.

Seriously, you guys need to dump The Far Left, instead of your current Presidential candidates trying to run a semi-Communist political platform.

The Russians aren't Communists anymore..perhaps the Democratic Party should follow their example.

Can you imagine what Barry Goldwater would say if he heard a Republican state they'd rather be Russian than Democrat,,, he must be spinning in his grave right now at what his party has become.

Communism  died    1989  along  with Socialism    ,The USSR is gone 

Maybe that should give you an idea of how despised the Democrats have become .

Who knows?   They have said "drain the swamp", too. Both major parties flip-flop, but Reps seem to do it more...  I guess you might calling it "flopping".