Homage to Stalin?

One of the odder, though probably not very significant, things about the current political debate is that recently I've been seeing rightwingers abandonning the traditional -- and correct -- conservative interpretation of the Spanish Civil War in favor of a rather dated leftwing take. It takes him a little while to get there, but Ross Douthat explains it all. I guess -- maybe -- this has something to do with the Trotskyite origins of neoconservatism or something.