What makes no sense? The denial of aid to Ukraine, of course. Recently I listened to an interview of Ryan Zinke (R, Montana) regarding the four bills that were introduced by Speaker Mike Johnson to provide aid to Israel, Taiwan, Ukraine, and our defense industrial base. Zinke’s skepticism about supporting Ukraine is, to put it mildly, incoherent. Why single out Ukraine? It’s bonkers.
A person can be forgiven for concluding that a good chunk of the Republican caucus is scared, maybe petrified, of the screeching minority in the part of the party most infected with Trump Personality Disorder (TPD), people like Marjorie Taylor Greene (R, Georgia) and Thomas Massie (R, Kentucky). They threaten to oust Johnson for simply putting Ukraine aid on the floor for a debate and a vote. Shrill, fire-breathing fanatics have outsized influence in a paper-thin Republican majority in the House, ironically a consequence of Trump’s ludicrous 2022 endorsements (he would like to shift blame to abortion).
What is TPD? These are people who, like Trump, confuse theatrics for common sense. It’s a form of political personality that treats stridency, bluntness, and coarseness as the virtues of a statesman.
But why the hostility to Ukraine? Zinke provided the usual humdrum about needing to secure our borders, our depleted munition stockpiles, and Ukraine corruption. Yet, the first two excuses are ridiculous. Money and supplies going to Israel and Taiwan, which he supports, also steer resources away from our border and weapons inventories. As for corruption, is Ukraine any more corrupt than, say, Chicago, our teacher unions, any of our unions, defense contractors, our litany of eco-industries with both hands in the public purse, et al?
The corruption angle is a ruse to hide an affection for Putin by loud-mouthed zealots who’d never win the spelling bee. It’s all tied up in the Russia hoax melodrama of 2015 to 2019. The left scapegoated Hillary’s 2016 loss on Russia, so the dimwitted Trump enthusiasts quickly discovered their inner Putin. “They’re against him, so we must be for him” is the dictum. The door was thus opened to a love for authoritarian public cleanliness, physicality in political persona, Potemkin visits by Tucker Carlson, and the balderdash of Candace Owens’s rantings — and a willingness to leave Ukraine dangling.
A Ukraine flag on a Trumpkin’s house became as incongruous as the tortoise besting Usain Bolt in the 100 meters.
Ditto for the thought process in the donkey party’s embrace of Ukraine-love. Their own “for ‘em/against ‘em” dialectic led them to replace their LGBTQ+ rainbow flag with Ukraine’s. Russia gave us Trump, in their disturbed thinking, so let’s inflict Ukraine on the Russians. That’ll teach ‘em. It’s, frankly, astounding to watch them after they spent the later years of the Cold War siding with the Russians.
Where’s all that stuff about partisanship ending at the water’s edge in foreign affairs? Hogwash.
Is the MTG caucus aware of the new Axis? It’s not hyperbole to notice the similarities between Germany/Italy/Japan circa 1939 and Russia/Iran/China circa 2024. There are more 1939 similarities in this new triumvirate of evil than during the Cold War (the bipolar U.S. v. Soviet Russia), including a rehash of “American First” isolationism – another Trump legacy. They might concede Iran to a lesser extent, but their cyclopic monovision really only sees China. Thus, as in der Fuhrer gobbling up the Rhineland, then Austria, then Czechoslovakia, they are willing to return Europe to a battlefield, just eighty years later. Their myopia, alongside the rank pusillanimity in other parts of the Republican caucus, is a cloning of a combination of Britian’s Neville Chamberlain and U.S.’s own Charles Lindbergh throughout the party. Is anyone noticing that we’ve been down this road before?
Pass the Ukraine bill, and damn The Squad, the TPD Republicans, and the cowardly in GOP ranks.
RogerG