The tyranny of the GOP isolationist minority

According to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s response to the attack by Hamas terrorists “is just beginning” and will “reverberate with them for generations.” Meanwhile, Ukraine’s war against Russian aggression grinds on, and additional military assistance from the United States for that beleaguered nation is in jeopardy.

The recent fate of appropriations bills for Ukraine serves as an ominous reminder of the tyranny of the minority in the United States. More and more, a small group of Republican politicians who believe compromise and bipartisanship are the dirtiest of dirty words is thwarting the will of the majority — and undermining our democracy.

Predictably, for a protracted conflict in a faraway nation, support for aid to Ukraine has declined since Russia’s invasion in February 2022. However, polls show that in this hyperpartisan political environment support remains substantial: About 63 percent of Americans — 77 percent of Democrats, 60 percent of independents, and 50 percent of Republicans — advocate sending more military hardware and supplies to Ukraine. Bipartisan majorities in both the House and Senate also favor additional assistance.

A few weeks ago, Rep. Matt Gaetz introduced an amendment to a defense funding bill prohibiting all military aid to Ukraine. 93 House Republicans voted in favor of the amendment; 126 Republicans joined all 213 Democrats in defeating it. In the Senate, the proposal was dead on arrival. “If you strip out Ukrainian aid,” Senator Lindsay Graham declared, “Russia will keep going, there eventually will be a war between NATO and Russia, and it will be a green light for China to invade Taiwan.”

Nonetheless, with former President Trump leading the way, an isolationist faction of the Republican party in the House has doubled down on its “just say no” strategy. In July, Trump maintained that if elected again he would instantly bring the conflict to an end:“I would tell Zelensky, no more. You got to make a deal. I would tell Putin, if you don’t make a deal, we’re going to give him a lot … I will have the deal done in one day. One day.” When Vladimir Putin praised this statement, Trump replied, “Well, I like that he said that. Because that means what I’m saying is right.”

The former president also ordered Republicans in Congress to oppose all aid to Ukraine “until the FBI, DOJ, and IRS hand over every scrap of evidence they have on the Biden Crime Family’s corrupt business dealings.” Any lawmaker who does not go along, Trump added, should expect a primary challenge in 2024.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene parroted Trump’s assertion that giving aid to Ukraine while a border wall on the U.S.-Mexico border was unfunded “puts America last.” Rep. Jim Jordan agreed with the can’t-walk-and-chew-gum proposition that the “most pressing issue in Americans’ minds is not Ukraine. It is the border situation and crime on the streets.” Accused by Gaetz of “making a secret deal” with Democrats, former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy removed a $6 billion appropriation for Ukraine passed by the Senate in September from the continuing resolution to avoid a government shutdown. McCarthy was deposed as Speaker anyway because he infuriated eight Republican hardliners by bringing the CR to the floor for a vote, where it passed with overwhelming support from Democrats and a majority of Republicans.

This week, the Biden administration announced it would seek an emergency military assistance package for Israel and Ukraine. “We have the capacity to do this and we have an obligation to,” President Biden asserted. “If we don’t, who does?” With reference to Ukraine — whose counteroffensive has regained more than half of the territory seized by Russia in 2022, but has progressed more slowly than expected, and will likely be suspended with the onset of winter — National Security Council spokesman John Kirby added, “Time is not on our side.”

To secure bipartisan support, the package may also include support for Taiwan and even some funds for a wall on the border. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer promised a vote in the next few weeks. In the House, no action can be taken until a Speaker is selected. Speculating that GOP dysfunction might produce a Democratic takeover of the House in 2024, Rep. Don Bacon opined that some of his Republican colleagues prefer to be in the minority because they can “vote no and yell and scream all the time.” To govern, Bacon noted, “you have to work together.”

On Ukraine aid, keeping the government open, adhering to the agreement negotiated by McCarthy to avoid a catastrophic debt default and many other issues, a minority of Republicans prefer yelling and screaming to governing. We will soon find out if they are willing — and able — to bring the house down to get their way.

Glenn C. Altschuler is the Thomas and Dorothy Litwin Professor of American Studies at Cornell University. He is the co-author (with Stuart Blumin) of “Rude Republic: Americans and Their Politics in the Nineteenth Century.”