Why Do Republicans Hate Ukraine?
Republicans' slavish support for Trump leads them to betray our friends.
“The doctrine that we must enter the wars of Europe in order to defend America will be fatal to our nation if we follow it,” declared Charles Lindbergh in 1941. The America First booster argued vociferously against sending military assistance to Britain as it stood alone against the Third Reich — until the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor weeks later suddenly settled America’s role in World War II.
Americans have embraced isolationism for extended periods ever since George Washington admonished that the United States should have “as little political connection as possible” with foreign nations. America’s post-war active engagement with the world, as chief defender of democracy and opponent of aggression, went unchallenged domestically until Donald Trump became president. He resurrected the “America First” label and then proceeded to insult our allies and embrace tyrants. And he holds a special grudge against Ukraine and its president for refusing to succumb to his mafia-like effort to extort them, which led to his first impeachment.
Had Joe Biden not won the 2020 election, Ukraine would again be a Russian satrapy. Indeed, having devoured Ukraine, Vladimir Putin would have had his sights next on the Baltic States and beyond.
Last week, new House Speaker Mike Johnson introduced a stand-alone bill on aid to Israel, stripping out that for Ukraine. The $14.3 billion slated for Israel, moreover, would come out of funding for the IRS. The bill, of course, is DOA in the face of opposition from fellow Republicans, the Democrats and the White House. Johnson, a Trump acolyte and architect of the former president’s Big Lie effort to overturn the 2020 election, has consistently voted against any aid to Ukraine. The puppet strings from Johnson’s shoulders to Trump’s tiny hands are very visible.
The irony is three-fold: 1) the GOP, traditionally stalwart defenders of national security and our friends and allies overseas, since Trump entered the White House on January 20, 2017, have sought to pull the rug out from them; 2) also traditional proponents of fiscal responsibility, Republicans are out to weaken the IRS as a favor to billionaire tax scofflaws; and 3) the bill, if it became law, would cost the country more. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates it would actually increase the deficit by $12.5 billion over the next decade, because diminishing IRS enforcement would reduce revenue collections. In total, the funding and cuts in the bill would add $26.8 billion to the deficit.
As Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO) told the Daily Beast, “It’s political, it’s not rational.”
Ukraine aid, moreover, has become a proxy vote on Biden’s foreign policy. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) explained to the Daily Beast, “Their worldview is really simply, if Joe Biden’s for it, it must be bad for America.”
Ukraine aid is also portrayed to the voters by the GOP and Fox as a choice between spending money on border security at home or giving it away to a country that is 5,000 miles away. “And so they have a tendency to create binary choices out of nuanced issues,” added Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND).
Republicans disguise their opposition to aiding Ukraine in clever sophistry about oversight and budget discipline. But for the congressional far-right, it is not about money. It’s about serving their master, Trump. Add to this, genuine admiration for Putin as a crusader for reactionary white Christian nationalism.
Blind support for Trump among so many Republican politicians and others raises a key question from which the mainstream media tend to steer clear because the hard evidence is lacking, yet the circumstantial evidence is compelling: Trump’s loyalty to Moscow. I’ve made the case repeatedly since before Trump even took the oath as president that he is in Putin’s pocket, either as an active asset or, more charitably, as a “useful idiot.” In Tinker. Tailor. Mogul. Spy?, I concluded,
Whether therefore Trump is a witting or unwitting asset of the Russian Federation, the bottom line is this: by turning away intelligence briefings, by inexplicably attacking his country’s intelligence agencies and by his open bromance with Putin, the President-elect is putting the nation’s national security at grave risk.
And in Trump is a Russian Asset & Here’s Why, I stated,
For me, Trump is no Rorschach. I see clearly a man in thrall to Vladimir Putin. . . If I were Trump’s SVR or GRU case officer, I would instruct him to 1) destroy NATO and insult our allies, 2) attack and undercut the CIA, FBI, Justice Department, State Department, 3) do away with Russia sanctions and not aid Ukraine, 4) take no actions to counter Russian cyber-attacks, 5) wreck liberal democracy. In terms of fulfilling an agenda, if not in behavior, Trump is a dream asset. He's following these points to a “T,” though with limited success so far — but the damage is mounting.
It appears MAGA-messaging on Ukraine is having an effect. An Economist/YouGov poll last month found that a growing share of Republicans believe that we should decrease our aid to Ukraine. In January, 35 percent of Republicans supported lowering military aid to Ukraine. In last month’s poll, 60 percent do, a 10 percent increase in just one week. Fortunately, Americans overall — even many Republicans — are maintaining their support for Ukraine in its struggle against Russian aggression.
Nonetheless, GOP hostility to Ukraine in Congress and among Republican voters is growing and not for principled reasons.
Another irony here is that, while the U.S. has sent more military assistance to Ukraine than any individual country, according to an analysis by the Council on Foreign Relations, the European Union has outspent Washington. Moreover, as a share of Gross Domestic Product, the U.S. ranks 16th among nations in aiding Ukraine.
In the pre-World War II context, today’s Republican Party encompasses the isolationism, xenophobia and disloyalty to American principles as Charles Lindbergh’s America First movement and the pro-Hitler German-American Bund combined. Are we merely going through another trying period in our history, as then, or will the forces of America’s self-defeat prevail? History eventually will tell. Meantime, buckle up.
The opinions and characterizations in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily represent official positions of the U.S. government.
A couple things that I think are noteworthy regarding current GOP policy, if they actually have a policy. 1. If they hate Ukraine it is only because their orange god, Donald Trump, did not get his way with his, pre first impeachment efforts. If the Furher is upset everyone must cringe and as we have seen the majority of the Republican Party do to appease him. Just as an aside, Neville Chamberlain thought appeasement would work with Hitler, it did not and Hitler only demanded more. 2. The GOP is a fascist party and has been for some time. They want to have autocratic rule, just as the National Socialist German Workers Party did in the 1930’s. Keep in mine there was a world wide Economic Crisis just before that, where there was no central bank to soften the blow. On top of that the idiots in power in the rest of Europe thought it was a good idea to punish Germany with obscene sanctions adding to the misery of the populace who had little or nothing to do with starting or perpetuating the war. But why realize that the government in power calls the shots and the working people pay the price. 3. The GOP has worked diligently, just as the elites did in Germany post WWI. For the German people they had zero experience with democracy, which was forced upon them at the end of the war, they had no ability or agency in supporting a democratic government. The GOP, especially with Trump saying from the time he came down the escalator, that the only way he could lose is if it was rigged. He kept that mantra up for 4 years in anticipation of the loss in 2020 and his base, who have really come of age since Ronald Reagan’s admonition that “I am from the government and I am here to help” pejorative, and they believe it. They don’t notice that routinely the GOP has moved to underfund the very agencies that could help, at the same time propping up the corporate giants no matter what. For those who are unaware, Benito Mussolini defined Fascism as “When you can’t see daylight between corporations and government you have Fascism” That was Hitler’s position as well.
Though it springs from a seed of truth, this indictment is wildly exaggerated.
First, there are many Republicans, in and out of Congress, who do stand in favor of support for Ukraine. Second, there are few Republicans who regard V. Putin as a hero of Christian nationalism. That, of course, is the position of some national conservatives, who by and large can hardly be called Republicans or even conservatives in the traditional sense. Third, on the Democratic side there are many progressives who are at the very least wobbly on Ukraine. See here, for instance:
https://www.chicagobusiness.com/greg-hinz-politics/ukraine-letter-sparks-political-trouble-jesus-chuy-garcia-chicago
Finally—and this is just my opinion—for all his tough talk, Biden’s Ukraine policy is a botch. Instead of giving that country what it needed to prevail, the Biden Administration wasted time debating with itself over whether Ukraine should receive this or that weapons system, finally providing it tardily, with the result we see now: The war is being dragged out, and a stalemate seems more than possible. I wrote about this here:
https://unwokeindianaag.substack.com/p/biden-botches-ukraine