Love Tom Nichols (and subscribe to TD as well as here), but Greene and Carlson do gain $ and status/position within their markets by their Trumpy branding. Agreed that Russia per se has nothing much to do with it. I agree with those downthread who say (maybe not in those words) that it resembles the (still around to some degree) pre-Woke left's fondness for Castro, Mao, Ho Chi Minh, Chavez, etc.