“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,” Buchanan said.

Pat Buchanan: Anti-LGBT Vladimir Putin is a true conservative hero | The Raw Story – 12/17/2013.

* * *

Did you know that in Sweden, “early sex is the norm—from the age of nine?” Or that the pro-European protests rocking Ukraine are part of a Western plot to revenge 18th-century Tsarist military victories? And not only should gays be prohibited from donating organs, but their hearts, upon death, should be burnt or buried because they are “unsuitable for extending the life of another?”

Welcome to the world of Dmitry Kiselyov, now the most powerful man in Russian media.

Meet Dmitry Kiselyov, Putin’s New Shock Jock – The Daily Beast – 12/17/2013.

* * *

“While preserving the secular nature of our state, and not allowing the over-involvement of the government in Church life, we need to get away from the vulgar, primitive understanding of secularism,” he said.

“The Russian Orthodox Church and other traditional religions should get every opportunity to fully serve in such important fields as the support of family and motherhood, the upbringing and education of children, youth, social development, and to strengthen the patriotic spirit of the armed forces.”

Church should have more control over Russian life: Putin | Reuters – 2/1/2013.

* * *

Putin is a man with a plan: He wants to show the world — his fellow autocrats in particular — that Russia is a steadfast ally, in contrast to the U.S., which has the nasty habit of throwing allies under buses. He wants to reassert Russian influence in the Middle East. That Assad provides Russia with a Mediterranean port is icing on the babka.

Vladimir Putin, the Neo-Soviet Man | National Review Online – 9/19/2013.

______

In forests clear cut for timber, the second growth comes up thorny.  In that way, perhaps, nature protects her wild enterprise until the trees once again shut out the sun.

Pat Buchanan’s remarks, rather parallel to Putin’s, belie the Christian side of post-medieval cultural, nationalist, and religious fascism.

“Our kind” becomes its own enterprise.

“Your kind” stand in the way of “our kind” — or, simply, we find “your kind” offensive.

Post-Soviet Russia has developed some thorns and the 75-year-old son of the old south Pat Buchanan has perhaps recognized in Putin’s cant a part of his own proclivities and, unintentionally, sent a signal as to where such ideas may lead.

______

On American Jews and the Pro-Israel Lobby (ADL archived remarks).

Pat Buchanan – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia – as viewed 12/17/2013.

Why MSNBC Dumped Pat Buchanan: His 10 Most Outrageous Statements | ThinkProgress – 2/17/2012.

Related: The New Blacklist – Patrick J. Buchanan – Official Website – 2/17/2012.

Menachem Rosensaft: Patrick Buchanan: What Else Is New? – 5/25/2013.

* * *

Putin doesn’t talk so much.

A fast glance at “state, nationalism” searches suggests to me that anti-Soviet sentiment in now post-Soviet clients has produced some anti-Russian drift, the facets of which seem tied up with relations to The Bear rather than The Jews.  Putin himself has been careful to navigate carefully as regards Russia’s multicultural modernity and the state’s relationship with Israel, which he seems to respect — not to mention by way, possibly, of his military’s purchase of second-tier military technology from Israel — and Russia’s need for revived validation in self-concept rooted in the historic tradition of the Great Imperial period.

* * *

Putin narrates a similar decline of the West and caution at importing Western ideas, particularly liberalism, into Russia. His speech dwelled on the West’s rejection of Christian values and traditions and bemoaned its embrace of political correctness and homosexuality. To him these have placed the West on a path of “degradation and primitivism, resulting in a profound demographic and moral crisis.”

Historical Lineages of Putin’s Russian National Identity | Russia – 9/26/2013.

Perhaps ironically, as “Buchanan gets Putin”, Putin gets Israel, relating Jewish ethnic nationalism to Slavic ethnic resurgence.  It’s not an unpleasant idea as one may note that language culture and cultural legacy are inseparable and of necessity must be valued but constrained, this with about 7,000 living languages extant, to state and region.

To what extent do hate and xenophobia integrate with ethnic pride and strength?  To be ourselves, whether in our homes or in the possession of a state, must we hate someone else who is not necessarily “out to get us”?

It’s a tough question.

Buchanan seems to have answered it for himself a long time ago.

Putin would seem to be answering with multicultural or secular state policy on one hand while encouraging traditional conservative Christian attitudes on the other, but he’s not so vocal as to lay himself out for definitive cultural and political dissection on the matter.

Perhaps the baseline is in fact the autocracy of the 19th Century accompanied by the desire to see a Russian way into the future rather than suffer co-option by the open societies of the west, but what comes marching behind that may look anti-Napoleonic and impossibly anachronistic, albeit grandiose, messianic, and armed to match.

# # #