Lee Kuan Yew's man in the Senate

Why does America's Far Right support anti-American foreign dictators?

Singapore's right-wing former dictator Lee Kuan Yew died Monday at the age of 91. He led one of the vilest regimes on the planet: The totalitarian Lee government flogged dissidents, censored newspapers, busted unions, and outlawed bubble gum (seriously).

When someone dies, most people don't say anything bad about them, and public figures across the political spectrum have in recent days offered praise for Lee. Even President Obama has gotten into the act. But one American politician constantly praised Lee Kuan Yew even when he was living: fascist Sen. David Perdue of Georgia.

Make no mistake, Perdue is a fascist. He was one of the first signatories to "Cotton Tom" Cotton's letter threatening Iran. And David Perdue has long been a diehard admirer of Lee Kuan Yew. Perdue had even defected to Singapore in the '90s, despite the Singaporean government's hostility to America. The future senator spoke of his admiration for dictator Lee in a 2007 speech to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, an organization that itself is known for praising brutal foreign dictatorships including that in Singapore. Perdue's disloyalty was touched on only briefly during the 2014 campaign, after he bragged that he made his living shipping American jobs overseas.

Right-wing treachery in support of Singapore has gone on for decades now, as I've discussed before. The lunatic Right was fresh off screaming about Grenada being a threat to the United States' national security when they decided to cozy up to Lee Kuan Yew's cronies.

Here's a particular irony: American rightists claim to be Second Amendment champions, yet Singapore - whose government they praise - disallows almost all personal gun ownership. I know what the right-wingers' excuse is going to be, so I'll debunk it now. They will claim Singapore is so free of crime that nobody needs a gun to defend themselves. Neat story, except it isn't true, for Singapore has experienced its share of gang rape and mass murder in recent years. Plus, if the American right wing cares so much about the principle of the right to bear arms, why would it matter what the crime rate is? Should we repeal the First Amendment if there was nothing around for newspapers to rightly criticize?

David Perdue is the enemy within.