Like many of you, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has been at the front of my mind for much of the past two weeks. Many have noted the feeling of a pivot point in history, whether it’s the eruption of a new Cold War or an escalation of direct hostilities with Russia; a possibly destabilizing cascade of follow-on events (food and energy shortages, higher inflation, a huge new refugee crisis); or a strengthening of European solidarity and unexpected impetus to an accelerated transition to green energy. But by far the most important framework for thinking about the attack on Ukraine should be the conflict between democratic, free societies and a resurgent authoritarianism that finds inspiration in the tactics and beliefs of fascistic leaders, with Vladimir Putin claiming a leading role.
Here in the United States, it should shock us anew that until the invasion, many Republican elected officials and pundits have been unabashed fans of Putin — a function not only of loyalty to Donald Trump’s own unstinting support for the Russian leader, but also of a belief in Putin’s importance as an avatar of “white Christian values” in the world, as political scientist Thomas Zimmer describes. But though many in the GOP are currently rushing to do an about-face by sounding off their support for Ukraine, and even warning sternly against pro-Putin voices in the party (as Mike Pence recently did), it would be foolish for Democrats to accept this hypocrisy as the price for national unity at a time of foreign policy crisis. After all, nearly every sitting Republican representative and senator voted either not to impeach or not to convict Donald Trump following his attempts to deny Ukraine vital armaments in exchange for manufacturing political dirt on Joe Biden; a mere two years ago, the GOP saw protecting its corrupt president as more important than the cause of a U.S. ally and crucial test case for democracy along the Russian border.
As bad, though, is our current political reality, in which the GOP is already preparing to wield the Ukraine conflict as another weapon in their war to kneecap the Biden presidency and pursue their own brand of authoritarian rule in the United States. As The New York Times reports regarding Republican strategy discussions, “with inflation soaring, linking Biden’s handling of the war in Ukraine to his domestic woes could prove to be a potent argument with voters in the fall.” The lines of attack are clear. First, it seems inevitable that we’ll see the Russian invasion continue to impact oil prices, which have already gone higher on fears of disruptions or embargo, which in turn will drive inflation up or at least keep it at its currently elevated levels. This will allow the GOP to hammer Biden for “causing” inflation, simply because he’s president while it’s happening, while also making the case that any Biden administration resistance to expanding gas and oil production in the U.S. is also driving prices higher. Second, some in the GOP will assert that they want to be even more aggressive than Biden in countering Russia, free of the president’s need to keep the present confrontation from spiraling out of control (witness Lindsey Graham’s speculation that what we really need to roll back the invasion is for someone to assassinate Putin). Finally, Republicans will do what they can to blame Biden for creating the current crisis; indeed, minority leader Kevin McCarthy introduced this critique when he tweeted yesterday that, “Just as the United States should have supplied weapons to Ukraine sooner, we should speed up the sale of weapons to Taiwan so they can safeguard their future against China.” McCarthy’s brazen effort to rewrite history is particularly offensive, requiring us to ignore the sordid history of Trump’s blackmailing of Ukraine and the GOP’s stalwart defense of his self-dealing, while essentially casting President Biden as the one who failed Ukraine. It is as if he is begging the Democrats to call him out. Well, they should.
Given that the GOP is openly telegraphing its plans to undermine Biden’s efforts to marshal American power against arguably the greatest threat to world peace since the end of the Cold War, and is implicated in the emergence of this threat through the Trump presidency, Biden and the Democrats should go on the offense against such partisan efforts. They need to realize that they can’t simply will bipartisanship into existence just because we face an international crisis. Indeed, the fact that the GOP can’t even unite behind the president at such a time should be front and center in the Democratic Party’s appeal to American voters. At Crooked Media, Brian Beutler outlines what such an outreach effort to voters would look like:
Tell them that Republicans are under [Trump’s] thumb—remind them of this, with the huge archive of Trump’s words and deeds, every day. Instead of stopping short at, “I will do everything in my power to limit the pain the American people are feeling at the gas pump,” draw on the same kind of anticipatory information tactics that so effectively stripped Putin bare: Because they’ve sided with Putin, Republicans in Congress will try to convince you that higher gas prices are Democrats' fault—don’t believe them [. . .] Another, more straightforward way is to simply observe that the party that tried to overturn our election here in the U.S. is now in the pocket of the tyrant who’s trying to snuff out democracy in Ukraine by force.
While this would obviously also be a partisan approach to a foreign policy situation, as Beutler acknowledges, what the Democrats ignore at their peril is that this is simultaneously the correct approach to take in order to defend the national interest. A party that has to date chosen to coddle apologists for the Russian dictator or offer him outright support, to the point that we can make the case that their actions helped make Russia’s invasion of Ukraine more likely, cannot now be allowed to whitewash that sordid history for the sake of seeking advantage against a Democratic president, and in doing so undermine his efforts to defend the national interest.
Beutler also makes another point that’s well worth drawing out, when he writes, “The urgency to deny [Republicans] power has just grown significantly, because if they win we can’t count on them to be on the side of global democracy in a new war against fascism that just turned hot.” This captures the urgent need for Democrats to assume a proper stance against GOP criticism around Ukraine and inflation. If Democrats believe that defending Ukraine is critical to defending democracy around the world, then employing a hard-hitting but truthful critique against an opposition party that would abandon that defense should it come to power must be a high priority.
I should be clear that the GOP is perfectly free to offer whatever criticism it wants of Biden’s efforts around the Ukraine crisis. In an ideal situation — which we are far from — good-faith critiques would be a vital part of our democratic deliberative processes. But in any circumstances, and certainly right now, Biden and the Democrats are equally free to denounce criticisms that are baseless, inflammtory, and ultimately in the service of the GOP’s authoritarian endgame. This is yet another case where the Democrats are badly served by behaving as if the Republicans are still a normal political party dedicated to democratic norms.