"dedication and character of those we entrust with power" -- oops.

“The fate of our country is not determined by the outcome of elections, but by the dedication and character of those we entrust with power.”

Click here for an article by David Frum at The Atlantic entitled "The Good Republicans' Last Stand," subtitled "Will enough of Trump’s party finally be willing to stick up for Ukraine rather than follow his lead and bow to Russia?" (I was able to read it; I hope you don't find that it's behind The Atlantic's paywall.)

The article discusses a Senate bill -- which may not pass in the Republican House, and which Speaker Mike Johnson might not even bring to the House floor for a vote -- to give aid to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan. Frum says:

The immediate stakes are the survival of Ukraine and the credibility of NATO. But behind the crisis of today is a larger crisis of tomorrow: U.S.-led defense of collective security, global trade, and the vitality of democracy as a force in the world.

He concludes:

In the most frigid days of the Cold War, a writer named Allen Drury published a novel set in the Senate about a behind-the-scenes battle to protect the U.S. government against the influences of foreign dictators and domestic demagogues. In the introduction to his 1959 novel, Advise and Consent, Drury offered this promise and warning to readers: “The fate of our country is not determined by the outcome of elections, but by the dedication and character of those we entrust with power.”

The Trump years have revealed so many failures of dedication and character by those who understood what and who Trump was but flinched from opposing him all the same. Will they do better in this fight to stand by Ukraine and send a message to the ex-president who aligns with Moscow against NATO?

Trump is campaigning to return to the presidency on four big promises:

1. to elevate himself above the law and evade accountability for the many crimes of which he has been accused and indicted, including attempting to overthrow an election by violence;
2. to round up and deport millions of people;
3. to impose heavy tariffs across the board and return the country to the protectionist policies that deepened the Great Depression; and
4. to resign from America’s democratic alliances and replace them with an isolationist foreign policy aligned with the world’s dictatorships.

Will a coalition of progressive Democrats and old-style Republicans be able to stand up to Trump and the MAGA mob and get the bill passed in the House? We'll soon know the answer.