Do you remember the bit in George Orwell’s 1984 where, in the middle of Hate Week, it is suddenly revealed that Oceania is at war with its erstwhile ally Eastasia? Orwell dramatizes the scene by having the switch revealed just as a party agitator at a rally is tearing into what has until then been the enemy, Eurasia:
“The speech had been proceeding for perhaps twenty minutes when a messenger hurried on to the platform and a scrap of paper was slipped into the speaker’s hand. He unrolled and read it without pausing in his speech. Nothing altered in his voice or manner, or in the content of what he was saying, but suddenly the names were different. Without words said, a wave of understanding rippled through the crowd. Oceania was at war with Eastasia! The next moment there was a tremendous commotion. The banners and posters with which the square was decorated were all wrong! Quite half of them had the wrong faces on them. It was sabotage!”
When I read the book as a boy, I found that passage ridiculous. I had not lived, as the author had, through the double somersault of Western communists who, following Josef Stalin, abruptly embraced the Nazis in August 1939 and abandoned them in June 1941.
Now, though, I think Orwell was on to something. Look at the acrobatics performed by many (not all) Trump supporters over Russian President Vladimir Putin. Until recently, suspicion of Russia’s strongman was common to almost every Republican. Social conservatives, free-marketeers, foreign policy hawks, moderates, tea partiers: all disliked a statist, authoritarian regime that murdered journalists, imprisoned opponents and helped itself to slices of neighboring countries.
For what it’s worth, that also used to be Donald Trump’s position. When Russia invaded Ukraine in 2014, he demanded sanctions, adding: “We have to show some strength. I mean, Putin has eaten Obama's lunch, therefore our lunch, for a long period of time.”
Get the Exclusive
05.18.2024