207 - Sabotage Undermines the Global Freedom Struggle in Ukraine

**HAPPY INDIGENOUS PEOPLES’ DAY**

            The only way that Putin can emerge victorious in Ukraine is if Congressional Republicans enable his aggression, standing aside while Ukraine burns. The recalcitrant Republicans who engineered Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s removal may not care, or even appreciate, that their narrow Trumpian assault on legislative give-and-take is exactly what Putin needs. Only by outlasting a collection of NATO democracies that supply and support Ukraine can Putin’s cowardly attack prove triumphant. Damningly furthermore, the United States is the linchpin of Ukraine’s defense of its sovereignty.  If Republicans pull too many plugs not only will the Pentagon run out of money to help Ukraine but the entire West will consequently lose heart. “We can’t make it without a strong American commitment,” Anders Fogh Rasmussen, a former NATO secretary general, said in an interview last week.

            Polls show that numerous voters favor continuing to aid Ukraine. Many Republicans in the House of Representatives also believe that Washington should continue to send armaments, aircraft, and cash to Ukraine.  But President Biden’s promise to provide $24 billion worth of necessary military and civilian supplies to the dangerously embattled Ukrainians was first held captive by the need to avoid a government shutdown at the end of last month. Now it is hostage both to the next government shutdown showdown on Nov. 17 and to the fact that McCarthy -- who pledged its passage to Biden—is no longer in office.

            Nor is it likely that an American legislative political system in thrall to a small bunch of schoolyard bullies will learn the fundamentals of honest governing soon enough to keep Russia at bay. The rebels who overthrew McCarthy and want to elect an even more dangerous (because less spineless and more bigoted) replacement speaker think that trashing Ukraine and withholding appropriations for Kyiv will gain them acclaim among fanatics and thus somehow contribute magically to their own fame and future electability.

            That the Democrats in Congress enabled this mess is unforgivable. I am aware that Speaker-in-waiting Hakeem Jeffries and our own beloved Katherine Clark (Mass. 5^th district) engineered McCarthy’s ouster. They, and the entire Democratic caucus, likely agreed that McCarthy lied and was not to be trusted. Fine. He was certainly weak and despicable in his double-crossing of foes and friends alike. But McCarthy past is better for progress domestically and certainly internationally than a Jim Jordan or a Steve Scalise, or almost anyone of that ilk. Whichever Republican emerges as Speaker will be even more beholden to the cantankerous extreme right intolerant Congresspeople that scuppered McCarthy. Jordan says that he would refuse to bring a bill funding Ukraine before the House.

            Hindsight is good, but after the event. The Democrats in Congress could have controlled McCarthy if they had voted in such a manner that he kept his Speakership. Even if “control” is too optimistic a verb, certainly by being the kingmakers the Democratic caucus could have exerted leverage. They could almost certainly in my view arranged to avoid any Nov. 17 shutdown issues. Ukraine would also have been spared and appropriations for it approved. Now the contest will be heated and prolonged.

            Admittedly, there were many reasons to have doubted the ultimate cartilage density of McCarthy’s backbone.  His bona fides were hardly worth much, given all that he had given up since January, and all the many ways in which he had trashed Democrats in public and harassed them in the House.  But a weakened, chastened, McCarthy might have proven useful to the saving of our nation.

            Democracies, even oft-dysfunctional ones, depend I suppose on tolerance for extremes of sentiment, even charity for those who abuse the First Amendment and prevaricate and dissemble to gain advantage over more principled colleagues. Ultimately, misleading their followers and undermining the democratic ethos that our founding fathers thought would endure are mere blemishes on the more calamitous Republican record. Enlightened people, the founding fathers planned, would let and let live; power would be shared; tolerance would prevail; and a rule of law would undergird the Republic, protecting it from insidious attacks. President Lincoln reached out even to anti-abolitionists, at least to hear what they had to say.

            McCarthy’s political demise means that Ukraine’s defense of its freedoms, our freedoms, and the world’s fundamental freedoms is at risk. Republican Senators understand how much safeguarding freedom everywhere depends on American assistance to Ukraine. Those senators appreciate that Ukraine’s fall, or a truce that solidifies Russian hegemony in 20 percent of Ukrainian territory, will let Putin further his imperial ambitions and lead to intensive assaults on neighboring lands. A victory for Putin, thanks to a possible Republican willingness to pander to those who are (understandably) weary and who also never like giving “our” money to “outsiders,” would also encourage China to invade Taiwan.

            Congressional Republicans were once fierce defenders of American military prowess. Weakening Ukraine hardly does that; the ultimate survival of Ukraine’s sovereignty, its economy, and its emerging democracy under inspirational leadership should not depend on the personal strivings and intramural contests of a handful of Congressional malcontents — the odious octet.

            If Congressional Democrats were truly Machiavellian they would re-install McCarthy or persuade three or four sensible Republicans to vote for Jeffries. Then we could pursue the titanic battle for global supremacy with greater unity.

           

PS: What is happening in Israel and Gaza is very worrying. Iran’s support for Hamas, and wholesale destruction, bolsters Prime Minister Netanyahu, a tragic accompaniment of mass mayhem.

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