It seems not every Republican wants to join forces with Vladimir Putin

Credit where credit is due, I suppose. Nebraska's Rep. Don Bacon is publicly questioning Dear Leader's new alliance with Russian murderer Vladimir Putin, which immediately proves him a more courageous person than nearly every Republican senator and alleged Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Combined.

We'll see if this gentle-as-possible criticism of the coup-attempting convicted felon is allowed to stand or whether Dear Leader and his minions will immediately attempt to put Bacon in his place. Presumably a hate-tweet will be coming shortly, at the least.

But Bacon's framing is notable, I think, because it emphasizes the disconnect between "Republicans in Nebraska"—the party's base—and whatever the hell it is that Trump, Musk, and their duel armies of kleptocrats have in mind. Older, staunchly conservative Republicans throughout the nation grew up under the threat of nuclear annihilation at the hands of the Soviet Union; hatred for the USSR and Russian leaders specifically were enforced by all of American culture, and most members of that older base have memories not of school shooter drills, but of hiding under their desks as supposed ward against nuclear strikes.

Trump is asking generations of archconservative older voters to switch sides and become allies to the enemy the grew up most in fear of. So far, I'm not convinced that this will meet with much success. It may be trivial for a Lindsey Graham or a Marco Rubio to switch out one set of core beliefs for another, and to do that as often as needed in order to achieve maximal boot-licking, but most older-than-average Americans are a bit more set in their ways than that.

Rep. Bacon gives voice to that worry: Um, boss? You do realize that everyone in my district still thinks of Russia as the evil empire, right? They're not Smart, like you, they've lived out lives in which Russia-based missile silos threatened their lives every minute of every day and in which exactly zero Russian strongmen have approached them to offer a Moscow-based luxury hotel with their names on top. They're a bit concerned that now their leaders are asking them to shake metaphorical hands with a man who literally has his enemies shot, poisoned, or thrown off of Moscow balconies.

I don't imagine there's too much threat that any of these archconservatives will be switching parties. But will they turn out to vote with their usual vigor, if their party is promising them the end of NATO and the greatest American heel turn in history?

Will they turn out to vote for Rep. Don Bacon if that's what they get in return? Rep. Don Bacon, at least, doesn't seem too sure of that.

The important caveat here is that while older conservatives may not be as eager to embrace Russia's organized crime ring turned government as young conservatives are, foreign policy concerns are seldom a dealbreaker in elections. Those older voters will probably stomach quite a bit of party inanity on the international scene as long as the Trump administration keeps government services humming smoothly, keeps the economy strong, and doesn't mess with Medicare or Soc—ooooh, right. Trump is taking an axe to absolutely everything older Republican voters care about.

I wonder how that's going to work out. Will older voters go along with it all if it means they can be a little bit more racist in their daily lives?

Hmm. Rep. Bacon, your thoughts on that?