Are Republicans in Congress Isolationists…or Putin Sympathizers?

President Joe Biden asked Congress to authorize another $61 billion in aid for Ukraine over four months ago, but Republicans in the House of Representatives are still blocking the request. The Senate approved the package three weeks ago, on a bipartisan basis, and most Representatives favor providing more assistance to Ukraine. But House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has refused to bring the proposal to a vote.

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian Army is losing ground to Russian forces because it is running low on ammunition, as supplies from the U.S. dwindle to almost nothing. Experts predict that Ukraine’s defenses could soon collapse if the US does not quickly send more weapons and munitions.

What is going on here? Why don’t House Republicans want to defend another democracy against Vladimir Putin’s unprovoked invasion?

The Growing Attraction Of One-Party Rule

Johnson and his cohort of MAGA colleagues have advanced several reasons for their resistance to helping Ukraine, but they are all bogus. For example, the aid programs have not caused the US deficit or national debt to soar. As we have discussed in previous articles, the expenditures for Ukraine have been a rounding error in the US budget . And most of the money stays in the US economy, since 60% of the funds are disbursed to American companies.

Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and others claim that Ukraine is so corrupt that the US should not bother to defend it. Corruption is a big problem, as it is in Russia. However, before the war broke out, Ukraine was a thriving democracy, with a free press, a capitalistic economy, and a clear desire to become part of the West. And in Ukraine, unlike Russia, political opponents do not suddenly die for mysterious reasons.

Here is the sad truth: so far, Johnson and other MAGA Republicans are happy to follow Donald Trump’s lead in opposing aid to Ukraine. Like Trump, they do not hold democratic values; they admire Putin and other autocratic leaders. Johnson and many of his fellow travelers seem open to replacing our democracy with the Russian model: one-party rule by a strongman. And they have already found their strongman…

Sound far-fetched? Most House Republicans who oppose helping Ukraine are also steadfast election deniers. Furthermore, in 2020, when he was a member of the House (but not Speaker), Johnson led the movement to nullify the election results.

The Border Issue: A Red Herring

Echoing Trump, House Republicans deplore the “invasion” on our southern border and insist that it is a greater threat to our national security than the war in Ukraine. Speaker Johnson has said that he will not support a Ukraine package unless Congress enacts a tough border control law.

The problem with this argument is that a month ago, the Senate did pass a sweeping bill to tighten immigration controls.

President Biden and Senate Democrats essentially caved, acceding to almost all the Republicans’ demands. The Democrats got nothing in exchange. They even abandoned their long-standing goal of a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers — the 800,000 Americans who came here as young children of undocumented immigrants and have spent most of their lives in this country.

No matter. Egged on by Trump, Johnson has declared that the Senate bill should be even more draconian. So as Kyiv burns, literally, Johnson continues to demand even tougher provisions in immigration legislation that is not related to Ukraine in any way. Johnson has recently given hints he might be open to some form of compromise, but time is running short. The Speaker seems to be looking for excuses rather than negotiating in good faith.

Isolationism Is Not The Root Cause

There has always been a powerful isolationist movement in the US. Huge numbers of Americans did not want the US to enter World War I or World War II. The debacles in Iraq and Afghanistan have undoubtedly soured many Americans on the idea of engaging in foreign conflicts.

But the MAGA Republicans’ refusal to help Ukraine does not simply reflect traditional head-in-the-sand isolationism. For example, many of these politicians are very hawkish on China and stress the need to defend Taiwan. Their attitude on Ukraine highlights the dramatic shift in the Republican Party’s attitude toward Russia, autocrats, and one-party rule.

Putin’s Russia is a dark, oppressive regime that openly disdains Western values. A small group of oligarchs runs a profoundly corrupt country, sharing their profits with Putin and his cronies from the FSB, the Russian domestic security organization formerly known as the KGB.

Putin jails or assassinates his political opponents. He has destroyed the free press and eliminated Russians’ civil liberties, reinstating Soviet-style intimidation and surveillance. Elections in Russia are a farce.

And abroad, Putin has pursued his dream of restoring Russian glory by invading Georgia and Ukraine and supporting a separatist movement in Moldova. Putin is following a classic Russian policy of imperialist expansion, hoping to recreate the Soviet Union. The Russian leader openly mocks Western values and gloats about Western “decadence”. Putin has worked hard to create an alliance with China and Iran to challenge the US and its allies.

So why do MAGA Republicans disparage Ukraine and admire Putin?

Putin’s Appeal For American Evangelicals

There are two main driving forces behind far-right Republicans’ new-found esteem for Putin and his regime. One is the American evangelical movement.

Christian evangelicals are a critical part of Trump’s base. Many are angry because America is becoming a more secular, less Christian country. Some evangelicals are also upset because white Americans are becoming a minority. These white Christian nationalists know that they are losing their status as the dominant group in America, and they are alarmed.

Putin presents himself as a defender of Russian Orthodox Christian values and civilization against two enemies: Islam and the decadent West. In a significant shift from the Soviet Union, Putin supports the Orthodox Church; he wears a cross on his chest. For Putin, this alliance is a convenient reversion to long-standing Russian tradition, in which the Czars used the church as an instrument of social control.

Putin has repressed the gay community in Russia. The Russian leader has attacked the West for tolerating same-sex marriage and the LGBTQ movement. This stance has appealed to many American evangelicals who are opposed to gay rights and greater tolerance for transgender persons.

House Speaker Mike Johnson/Getty Images

For Russia, With Love

As a result, many American evangelicals have swallowed Putin’s propaganda about defending Christian values. This is an odd notion of Christianity. Putin has caused the murder of countless political opponents. He has launched wars that have killed tens of thousands of innocent civilians. But these evangelicals ignore those unpleasant details. After all, they also admire Donald Trump, who does not embody any Christian values. (Many other evangelicals, as well as mainstream Christians, loathe Trump because of his immoral behavior.)

Speaker Johnson is a deeply devout Christian who, as a lawyer, represented organizations that sought to prevent same-sex marriage from becoming legal in the US and otherwise agitated against gay rights. That was his prerogative, of course. However, like many other far-right Republican Representatives, Johnson does not seem to believe in the separation of church and state, which is one of the core principles of our democracy.

In May 2023, Johnson said during an interview on TV:

“The separation of church and state is a misnomer. People misunderstand it. Of course, it comes from a phrase that was in a letter that Jefferson wrote. It’s not in the Constitution. And what he was explaining is they did not want the government to encroach upon the church — not that they didn’t want principles of faith to have influence on our public life. It’s exactly the opposite.”

Mike Johnson Says Separation of Church and State is a “misnomer”.

Well, not exactly. The First Amendment to the Constitution states that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion”. For 230 years, lawmakers and legal scholars have interpreted that clause to mean the church and state should be kept separate: the government should not support or favor a particular religious group or faith.

Disdain For Liberal Democracy

The second major driving force behind far-right Republicans’ apathy about Ukraine is contempt for democratic traditions.

Many conservative Republicans embrace authoritarian leaders and show deep disdain for democratic traditions like the free press (“fake news”) and fair elections. Donald Trump has encouraged this admiration for autocrats like Putin and Viktor Orban, Hungary’s authoritarian president. But in some respects, Trump is a symptom, not a cause, of the Republican Party’s growing affinity for profoundly anti-democratic leaders.

Orban proudly proclaims that Hungary is forging a new path of “illiberal democracy”. Like Trump, Orban demonizes immigrants and journalists. Like Putin, he claims that he is defending a Christian nation against a hostile, immoral West (while taking large subsidies from the European Union).

But the reality is that Orban has destroyed Hungarian democracy in all but name. And in another parallel with Russia, the Hungarian regime is riddled with corruption.

The Viktor Orban Fan Club

Orban does not arrange for his opponents to be murdered. His methods are more subtle. The Hungarian leader has used ostensibly “legal” measures to muzzle Hungary’s formerly free press and stack elections so thoroughly that his party always wins.

Orban is an ally of Putin, even though Hungary belongs to the EU and NATO. The Hungarian president fiercely resisted the EU’s latest proposal to provide $54 billion in additional aid to Ukraine, stalling it for months. Orban also held up Sweden’s admission to NATO, exasperating the other European members of the alliance.

Although he is clearly an autocrat, Orban is a darling of the Republican far-right. The Conservative Political Action Conference, a key gathering for conservative politicians, has held two of its conferences in Budapest, in 2022 and 2023. Orban was, of course, the featured speaker.

Election Deniers Oppose Ukraine Aid

Most Republican members of Congress who are election deniers also oppose aid to Ukraine. Like Orban, these American politicians have abandoned democratic principles. They are willing to subvert the election process so their party will win. They will disenfranchise millions of American voters to hang onto power.

Mike Johnson was one of the main architects of the campaign to overturn the election results in 2020. A constitutional lawyer, Johnson wrote the brief that 126 Republican Representatives submitted to the Supreme Court supporting a lawsuit that Texas brought to contest the election results. Johnson also led the effort in the House to block certification of the Electoral College votes. Thanks to his drive and leadership, two-thirds of Republican Representatives voted not to certify the results.

Republican House leaders such as Steve Scalise (R-LA) and Elise Stefanik (R-NY) continue to repeat Trump’s lies about the “stolen election,” and they oppose aid to Ukraine. So do most of the loud voices on the far right, who come from a broad swath of states: Matt Gaetz (Florida), Paul Gosar (Arizona), Bob Good (Virginia), and so on.

The MAGA Fifth Column In Congress

Here are some troubling statistics:

One-third of the members of Congress, in the House and the Senate, reject the 2020 election results as fraudulent; all are Republicans.

70% of Republican Representatives — 152 out of 219 — are election deniers.

So the vast majority of Republicans in the House have abandoned core democratic principles. These Trump acolytes are not willing to accept the results of the popular vote or the transfer of power to the opposing party. They refused to punish a leader who tried to overturn the election results by force on January 6, 2021. It is tragic, but not surprising, that these Republicans do not care about helping a democratic country defend itself against a fascist invader.

After all, if you don’t practice democracy at home, why defend it abroad?

We have two reasons to fear the MAGA House Republicans. If they continue to block further aid to Ukraine, Putin may defeat a democratic country and install a despotic regime there. If that happens, then after a few years Putin will probably invade the Baltic States and Poland . Since those countries are members of NATO, the US is bound by treaty to defend them against an attack. The US would have to send soldiers to fight Russian troops.

And if the 2024 Presidential election is close, as predicted by the polls, Speaker Johnson and the other MAGA Republicans in Congress may try to steal it. For them, the maneuvers to overturn the 2020 election were a dress rehearsal.