The dissidents now in the West who admire and flock to Putin remind me of years ago when Left wingers admired all kinds of Left Wing and communist loonies. The Left was mad at the USA so it rallied around Castro, Ho, Mao, Stalin, etc. Now we have putative conservatives who think Putin is a Christian and a conservative despite much evidence to the contrary.
I think it wraps around. Democrat hatred becomes America hatred, which becomes love of dictators opposed to America, which becomes rejection of American values because those dictators do it, and eventually they’re singing the praises of authoritarian socialist nanny states.