203 - Doing Putin's Dirty Work: His Republican Allies

            I don’t usually write on Sundays, but because of tomorrow’s High Holy Day, this Newsletter issue is coming to you today.

Ukraine’s charismatic President Volodymyr Zelensky is campaigning across the West to save his nation from tyranny – to prevent the kinds of merciless damages Stalin and Hitler wreaked on the Ukrainian people before, during, and after World War II. Opposing his titanic struggle for freedom are less principled Congresspersons like Matt Gaetz, an accused sex trafficker; Eli Crane of and Andy Biggs of Arizona, Tim Burchett of Tennessee, Bob Good of Virginia, and the lamentable Marjorie Taylor Greene – all seeking to boost their personal electoral ambitions and to align themselves with Trump, the most rabid self-promoter of all. Trump publicly acclaims Gaetz’s maneuvers. When the hard right-wingers attempt in Congress to block renewed aid to Ukraine, they do Putin’s work. As such, they are Putin enablers.

            Both in speaking to American Senators and Representatives last week and in addressing Canada’s more respectful and responsive Parliament, Zelensky made a compelling case that President Biden and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau both echoed.  Zelensky said that his nation’s struggle was to defend “freedom and democracy in the world.” Trudeau characterized the conflict as “a challenge on a generational scale, a challenge that history will judge us on, a challenge we must confront with lionhearted courage.”

“I believe that you’re supporting either Ukraine or Russia,” Zelensky told a news conference in Ottawa Friday. “By weakening the support of Ukraine, you’re reinforcing Russia.” “Freedom, democracy and human rights: you need to fight for those,” he said. Also, as he reminded even a nay-sayer like embattled Speaker Kevin McCarthy in Washington, Zelensky repeated the obvious: Ukraine was giving its own lives and its own prosperity both for itself and for the rest of the free world. “The largest price, this is something that Ukraine has paid because we are paying with the lives of our people,” he said.

Another salient consideration is that European and other global backers of Ukraine’s defense against aggression look to the United States – naturally – for leadership. Any backsliding in Washington would – inevitably – undercut Europe’s commitment (which already is showing weakness in Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, and elsewhere).

Russia falsely accuses Ukraine (in attempting to justify its calamitous invasion) of contemplating “genocide” against Russians in Ukraine. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov repeated those cooked-up charges in the UN on Tuesday and Wednesday. But, as Zelensky told Canadians, what Russia was now undertaking in his country amounted to genocide as well as the more easily documented and prosecuted (someday before the International Criminal Court – ICC) charge of “aggression.” “This Russian aggression must end with our victory so that Russia will never bring back genocide to Ukraine,” Zelensky declared.

The Republican hard-right handful in Congress seems to want both to boost its control over McCarthy and to gain credibility among the Trumpers by refusing to fund the U. S. government as the fiscal year ends this week, by refusing to let even procedural motions go forward, and by opposing President Biden’s $24 billion attempt to keep Ukraine’s defensive machine operating against Russia.  Additional Republicans, and some not-yet-calibrated number of Republican voters appear to think that our government should cease helping Ukraine, a sentiment that threatens Biden’s reelection next year and absolutely plays into Putin’s designs for himself and on Ukraine.

In contrast, in a country hosting the largest Ukrainian-originated diaspora outside that nation and Russia, Canada has already given Ukraine a relatively robust $3.7 billion financial assist, plus $1.3 billion in direct military supplies.  More than 175,000 Ukrainian refugees have settled in Canada since last year’s invasion; Canada’s deputy prime minister is of Ukrainian extraction. Canada is happy to do its part to save Ukraine and the free world, just as Zelensky, Biden, and Trudeau advocate.

Republic sentiment generally is part of an understandable combat fatigue as well as an attitude that takes its cue from Trump, that foot-spur warrior.  But antagonistic Republican Congresspersons approach the issue in the (probably vain) hope of gaining serious long-term advantage in their struggle for prominence.  So far they have succeeded mightily in de-legitimizing the Speaker, a weak and forlorn emblem of everything rotten within today’s Trump-dominated Republicanism.  But they are only at worst no more than twenty, the other Congressional Republicans fearful of crossing them and encouraging farther right competition in their own districts. How the Republicans pull themselves out of this deep self-inflicted hole is not known by me, but Ukraine – as Zelensky told them – cannot survive without U. S. funds and military materiel. Nor can American democracy.

Fortunately, and I am amazed to report it, the one prominent dyed-in-the-wool real Republican who is aware of what is at stake is cantankerous Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell, who fortunately understands what is at risk: “American support for Ukraine is not charity,” he said Thursday. “It’s in our own direct interests – not least because degrading Russia helps to deter China.”  Perhaps the Gaetzes and his compatriot “know-nothings” will take heed in time to support Ukraine and to keep the U.S. government funded. Or maybe McCarthy will find inner resolve. Either way, our existential freedom and democracy’s survival everywhere depends on an outburst of integrity.

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