Is Ronald Reagan turning in his grave?
Would the president who told Mr Gorbachev in Berlin to “Tear down this wall!” tell Mr Putin that the West really should not care if he tears down Ukraine?
The president who said – in Moscow — in 1988, “Here’s my strategy on the Cold War: We win, they lose,” take this from Republican Rep. Paul Gosar of Alabama: “We have no dog in the Ukraine fight.”?
The Gipper would be standing with the Republican leaders in the Senate, led by Mitch McConnell, on what needs to be done – and who support, in large measure, what President Biden has done.
“It appears to me the administration is moving in the right direction,”
McConnell said.
A day later, he added, “My advice to the president and his team from the very beginning was, ‘Let’s do the following things and do them now: both ground-to-air stinger missiles, the weapons that can also be used against tanks into Ukraine now.’”
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki underscored the importance of this alignment on Ukraine: “One country should not be able to invade and take over territory from another country—that’s not just a Democratic belief or Republican belief,” she said.
“That’s central to who we are as a country and who leaders like Leader McConnell or…like President Biden [are]. That’s what their belief has been for many decades, so we certainly welcome that.”
But several major Republicans in Congress and drivers of the party’s Trumpist trajectory are decidedly in the Putin camp – with shocking statements.
Trump himself told Lou Dobbs that sending troops to NATO would serve, “To start World War III, to start World War III. It’s just all so crazy. And it would have never happened under me. It would have never happened.”
This rings true to those who believed Trump supported Putin more than he stood with NATO in his presidency. And who believe Trump would surrender Ukraine to Putin.
Tucker Carlson had the largest cable news ratings in 2021 and has over 3.2million viewers each night. Carlson is Trump’s favourite megaphone for the base. He said to Axios:
“Why is it disloyal to side with Russia, but loyal to side with Ukraine? It’s a sincere question. I just want to go on the record and say I could care less if they call me a pawn of Putin”
Tucker Carlson
“It’s too stupid. I don’t speak Russian. I’ve never been to Russia. I’m not that interested in Russia. All I care about is the fortunes of the United States, because I have four children who live here. I really hope that Republican primary voters are ruthless about this,” and vote out any Republican “who believes Ukraine’s borders are more important than our borders.”
You judge whether Tucker Carlson is a pawn of Putin.
Not only are the biggest Trumpists in Congress supporting these views, but the Trumpists running for election in November have seized on them too.
Several Republican Senate candidates for Ohio, Arizona and Nevada are on board: “This country has actual problems that our politicians should prioritize election integrity, the border crisis, soaring inflation, violent crime, failing schools, and Big Tech, to name a few. The Ukrainian border isn’t even in the top 20,” Arizona Senate hopeful Blake Masters said.
So many in the Republican Party have not just run from Reagan, they have severed ties with Reagan. Trump wants to dominate the party for decades to come – even longer than Reagan held sway from his election in 1980 through the presidencies of two Bushes, ending in 2009.
Given what up-and-coming Republicans are saying, and doing, to the biggest threat to European and US security since the Cold War, Trump is on track to succeed.
Putin hopes he will.