The Pro-Putin Wing Of The Republican Party

Click here for an article at The Bulwark by Robert Zubrin, entitled "The Perilous Rise of the Putin Republicans." The article concludes:

Over this past weekend, a bloc of House Republicans made it clear that their number-one priority in the budget negotiations was to cut off aid to Ukraine. Rather than accept a deal negotiated by Speaker Kevin McCarthy that would have imposed substantial fiscal restraint on the federal government—including 30 percent cuts in numerous liberal hobby-horse programs—but preserved military aid to Ukraine, the intransigent Republicans accepted an agreement that did the exact opposite: kept the entire government funded so long as no new aid went to Ukraine. In this they were backed up by a group of Senate Republicans that rejected the counsel of their own leader, Mitch McConnell, who had urged continued support for Ukraine.

For years, Republicans have expressed outrage at Democrats’ accusations that Donald Trump or his campaign colluded with the Kremlin. But what can one say when the controlling faction of House Republicans makes assuring Russian victory their top priority?

Let us be clear: We are seeing the rise of the Putin Republicans. It is a faction that joins Trump in his sympathies with Moscow and that rejects the U.S. role as a defender of freedom and democracy.

Furthermore, opposition to U.S. support of Ukraine also serves the interests of Beijing. Russia and China are allies. If Russia conquers Ukraine—enhancing Russia’s material and technological power, deleting Ukraine’s million-man army from the West’s order of battle, advancing its forces to the borders of NATO members Poland and Romania, and eliminating Russia’s strategic weakness along its southwest border that otherwise would constrain its ability to attack elsewhere—the idea of American protection will be discredited, and countries everywhere will move to cut their deals with the world’s new masters.

This catastrophe must be averted. In this hour, America needs Republicans who offer a vision of America’s future leadership in the world, not Putin Republicans. President Biden has been much too slow in his support of Ukraine, caring more about sending the right signals than sending the needed arms. Republican candidates for the presidency should promise leadership that offers victory, not accelerated defeat followed by global rout. And pro-Ukraine Republicans in both houses of Congress should work with Democrats to restore and strengthen support for Ukraine.

By destiny, rather than choice, we are the watchmen on the walls of world freedom. We need to live up to that role.