America’s paralyzing political estrangement may soon change the world for the worse.
Nearly two years into the war in Ukraine, a US lifeline of arms and ammunition is for the first time in real danger of collapsing, 12 months after President Volodymyr Zelensky was hailed as a hero during a Christmas visit to Washington. The assumption lying behind Russian President Vladimir Putin’s bid to wipe Ukraine off the map – that the US will lose interest in the war – is therefore close to being validated. This could set off serious consequences that would shake the foundation of US global leadership, alienate allies and embolden America’s sworn enemies.
In the GOP-controlled House, hardline Republicans dedicated to ex-President Donald Trump’s “America First” philosophy want to cut Ukraine loose and leave it to its fate. A wider group of Republicans in both chambers of Congress, meanwhile, are using President Joe Biden’s new $60 billion aid request to try to force huge concessions on immigration policy.
This is the latest occasion when conservative lawmakers, who lack mandates to enact their goals, are holding America’s national security priorities and global reputation hostage to their domestic political aims. The House recently passed an emergency aid package to bolster Israel’s war against Hamas – but included cuts to Internal Revenue Service funding that made it impossible for Senate Democrats and the White House to accept. That followed the refusal of scores of Republicans to vote to raise the government’s borrowing authority in May. Their stance forced then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy to use Democrats to pass a measure averting a global financial meltdown, fatally weakening his hold on the job.
The rationale behind such political gambits? That the White House will eventually fold and capitulate to GOP demands because the consequences of doing nothing are so…
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