The GOP is about to come after Biden on Ukraine
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
www.washingtonpost.com /opinions/2022/03/18/ukraine-biden-gop-trump/
The GOP is about to come after Biden on Ukraine
Rick Wilson 5-6 minutes 3/18/2022
The American politics of Russia’s war on Ukraine look calm on the surface but are about to get ugly.
Republicans slapped blue-and-yellow flag pins on their Jos. A. Bank suits and took a short break from anti-vaccine bleating and blaming President Biden for global inflation. This moment of unity looked promising; who could miss all those congressional Republicans cheering as loudly as Democrats during Volodymyr Zelensky’s address to Congress?
It cannot last. Republican leaders are desperately trying to find a weak spot in Biden’s handling of this war. Even if there is unity for a moment, they will soon lay any mistake, or misstep, or outcome where the Russians prevail at Biden’s doorstep.
If that sounds cynical, I would ask: Have you met my former party?
It wants to play the most beloved game in the GOP playbook: that the Democrats are weak on defense. In my decades as a GOP ad maker and strategist, I made some pretty notorious ads about it. And I can tell you they work.
Democrats too often miss the optics and politics of foreign policy, hoping good choices will outweigh the dark, emotional games Republicans like to play when it comes to national security.
Republicans specialize at turning Democratic successes overseas into disasters. It’s a slow-burn strategy designed to trigger an outrage culture that doesn’t stop at the water’s edge. GOP leaders don’t care about reality; their audience doesn’t care about the truth, and their political media apparatus always stays on message.
Donald Trump bungled the 2020 negotiations ending the war in Afghanistan, freeing the Taliban at scale and setting a date certain for U.S. withdrawal. When Biden stuck with that commitment to exit, Republicans leveraged the inevitable chaos in Kabul into a cataclysmic political fable; if only the weak Democrats had held on for another year, victory was ensured.
Similarly, the terrorist attack on the Benghazi facilities in 2012 was another faux scandal-in-a-box because it gave Republicans — me included — a populist tale to be weaponized, embedded in the right’s mythos and deployed repeatedly. I distinctly recall being in a focus group that year and watching the pollster tease from participants how Benghazi could be used to offset the 2011 killing of Osama bin Laden under Barack Obama and transformed into a political millstone for Hillary Clinton.
The go-to notion that “Democrats have endangered your family” in every international moment from Vietnam to 9/11 is not about altering Democratic foreign policy or improving our national security; it is about peeling off White, working-class (and lately, Hispanic working-class) voters and turning them into reliable Republicans. The idea that Democrats are overcommitted to diplomacy and international institutions became standard GOP messaging long ago.
Democrats haven’t sorted out a simple reality yet; the GOP will soon try to flank Biden on Ukraine. Some, like Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), will try to box him in on a no-fly zone — ignoring the negative externality of a nuclear exchange — while others will push him further than he wants on lethal aid to Ukraine. Win or lose, the GOP will declare that Biden blew his main chance. Even many sober foreign policy thinkers in the GOP will try to leverage Democratic “weakness” in Ukraine in the 2022 elections.
But let’s also be honest about the landscape: A not-so-secret faction of the GOP is rooting for the bad guys in this one. We’ve already heard that from the Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.) wing of the party. Many Republican base voters are dictator-curious and believe Russian President Vladimir Putin is the savior of White, straight, law-and-order Christianity; the virus of Trumpian hyper-nationalism, with its constant call to reject alliances, diplomacy, smart power and multilateral action, has deeply infected the GOP.
Not long ago, the two parties worked together to face down, contain and repudiate Russian aggression and Moscow’s oppression of free peoples. From Truman to Eisenhower, from JFK to Reagan and George H.W. Bush, the Soviets respected American resolve. A few Republicans might yet hear the call to that unity in the face of Putin’s war, aware that Biden is leading the fight about the shape of the world in the coming century.
But if you think the majority of today’s GOP will leave politics at the water’s edge much longer, think again.
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Its not difficult - the Democrats need to fire back at right wing lies.
"...aware that Biden is leading the fight about the shape of the world in the coming century."
The only thing the incompetent and belligerent blamer Biden is doing is making things worse...a world leader he is not.
Trump tried to use diplomacy but was reviled for not being tough enough on Putin
Trump's diplomacy was.................what?
"Grab Em By The Pussy!"
Um, what diplomacy exactly? Sucking Putin's cock is not diplomacy.
Trump is as diplomatic as a fart in church.
Tell that to Biden. If he isn't pleasuring Putin he is sucking up to Xi.
A good start would be to censure and remove any of them who encouraged and/or participated in the insurrection.
What insurrection? You mean the Washington protest march to the capital?
Yeah, that...........
One man equals a whole wing of a party? Just more democrat BS.
Really, why is this being laid at President Biden's feet when putin invaded the Ukraine and is killing people for no reason whatsoever??????????????????????
How the hell is this the fault of President Biden???????????????????????????????
Thank God this is just an opinion.
Maybe Democrats can use this OPINION to sway voters and hold on to their razor-thin majority.
/s
Rank and file Trumpsters are not eloquent enough to explain conservative affection for Putin, but there have been high brow right wing articles that have expressed the conservative affinity for Putin.
It is based on disdain for European democracies, and multi-culturalism, and the NATO alliance, and on love of nationalism and global white solidarity.
So you claim, JR, so you claim.
Progressive liberals are well known for knowing many things which simply aren't true.
That was profound as a wet fart in the wind!
Which totally, by the way, makes John's case.
Progressive liberals are well known for knowing many things which simply aren't true.
Thank you for the confirmation!
... in the imaginations of a few feeble-minded reactionaries.
Reactionaries???
LMMFAO!
To quote JBB:
You are just deliberately trying to prove me right now, aren't you?
You have succeeded, sir!
You keep making my case for me, frequently and consistently.
When you're in a deep hole better stop digging!
Ignore it. I do.
That's why you don't know the truth. You keep ignoring it.
Yep, that little soiree in Afghanistan last August sure was a success story for the Democrats wasn't it? How many thousands of illegals parked themselves under that highway bridge in Texas before getting let into the country illegally on Biden's orders. There are plenty more but why continue?
Democrats have been pretty successful at removing that from their voters' minds.
Of course, inflation might be more of an issue for ALL voters now.
GOPERS going to come after Biden? What else is new?
Biden is doing fine.
I wonder if behind those closed doors at Helsinki, Putin was assured that in a Trump second term, NATO would be neutered, Ukraine would not be armed, and the GOP congress and senate would look the other way? I could be 100% incorrect, but we don't know. Nobody knows except Trump, the American stenographer, Putin and the three other Russians in the room.
Well, hell, if we are just going to speculate, how's this?
Hunter Biden made some shady deals enriching himself and his father. Did those deals falling apart and being exposed lead Joe to be slow to react to the crisis in Ukraine? Is he protecting his kid and money?
Joe Biden's tax returns were all made public so good luck proving he enriched himself illicitly...
Perhaps you overlooked this:
Why would Brandon's tax returns matter- other than he may not have declared all of those "gifts" his son Hunter gave him? Like paying for his cell phone; cell phone bill; remodeling on Brandon's house; etc.
Hunter is still under investigation. Don't worry, the DOJ doesn't hold Democrats to the same standards as they do Republicans. I am sure nothing more than a fine to Hunter, and maybe Brandon will come from this. The real questions is if Republicans will impeach Joe over pay for play after mid terms. The only thing stopping them from removing the human fuck up machine; is the cackling incompetent jackass that is currently VP.
Nowhere in that did you identify any crimes...
Why not make it illegal for friends and family of office holders to profit from influence over and access to office holder like Hunter, Ivanka Trump, Jenny Thomas and Neil Bush all have?
Democrats try to but the gop always block it!
And what would you do differently?
[Deleted]
I would allow the transfer of the Polish MIGs to Ukraine I would send Green Berets to Ukraine not to fight but to train those civilian Ukrainians that wish to fight. I would place every thing Russian does to the most sever sanctions possible. I would remind Putin that we also have nuclear weapons. I would call Putin's bluff and increase arms shipments. I would encourage Turkey to provide anti air batteries an drones to Ukraine. I would send Predator drones and more sophisticated anti tank missiles like the Hellfire missiles.
I would cut the red tape from oil production. I would restart construction on keystone pipeline. I would remove any regulations that effecting the use and construction of other pipelines. I would go back to the policies that not only made us energy independent but an energy exporter.
I certainly would not be begging Iran and Venezuela for oil like Biden has done
So you feel that we should take steps to escalate this war to include the US and NATO? Thank god Biden and the rest of NATO feels otherwise.
Going all in on the first deal? That's not how it works, it is more effective to add to the sanctions, so once Russia's economy gets uncomfortable you can show that it could still get worse. The last thing you want is to show the enemy that you've done your worst, and not to worry because you are out of options for additional sanctions.
Been there, done that.
Again, done. however you have to also keep in mind that Ukraine will lose. The mouse can only hold back the elephant for so long, and once they do lose, do we want our advanced weapons to fall into Russian hands?
Oil companies have chosen not to increase production, and once they decide to it will take months or years to ramp up production to that degree. PLUS oil is an international commodity, no guarantees the oil companies will sell exclusively to the US.
What does CANADA have to do with this?
You seem confused on how gas and oil production works. So I will be ignoring any of your other oil and gas mistaken ideas.
Better to get gas and oil from Canada than beg Venezuela and Iran to sell us theirs or to get oil from Russia or do you like supporting our enemies so they can use the funds against us.
We don't use the crap that Canada wants to pump through the keystone pipeline. Keystone pipeline has absolutely nothing to do with American oil.
I wonder what Biden and Xi talked about for two hours. I wonder what orders Xi gave Biden. Afterall the Biden family is a wholely owned subsidiary of the Chinese
Why is this surprising? Republicans will paint Democrats as weak and declare that the United States needs to project its military power around the world. Democrats will paint Republicans as indifferent to dead babies and declare that the United States needs to project its economic power around the world. All of this is Cold War politics. We've seen this movie before.
Cold War politics is about winning and losing. Neither party will be talking about compromise or even about peace. Both parties are talking about America winning. And both parties are placing the burden of America winning onto the shoulders of ordinary Americans. America wins by making enormous sacrifices in blood and money. Ordinary Americans always pay the price for whatever foolishness the neoconservatives and neoliberals pursue for the United States to win global domination. Ordinary Americans are always told they must make sacrifices because its the right thing to do. In international politics ordinary Americans always come last. The United States winning global domination depends entirely on ordinary Americans losing.
The United States has been projecting its military and economic power around the world for 80 years. The United States hasn't won anything in those 80 years. And ordinary Americans have always paid the price.
[deleted]
I am 100% behind Biden's approach thus far. I have stated from the get go that the US should provide materiel and intel support but NOT become actively involved in the Ukraine beyond that. We will give the Ukrainians the weapons and ammo, but they need to do the fighting for their country. Biden has embraced this approach and obviously I fully support him in this.
He must be doing something right as his approval rating is up over 20 percent due to his handling of the war.
Whom is his approval rate up to and how are you arriving at 20%?
Only by blind loon leftists.
My point was that it can be assumed that it was due to a poll result. Political polls are highly, suggestive questionable, and dependent on the demographics of where they were taken and by those commissioning said poll. Pollsters are frequently known to poll 100 to 1,000 people in a certain area and then try to give the impression that it represents the beliefs of the entire population, when it does not. For those reasons, I stopped having any faith in an any political polls long ago.
R partisans will never approve of anything Biden does so clearly (obviously) the approval bump is from those other than R partisans.
What did D partisans approve of what Trump did?
Fact is, there is nothing to approve Biden of yet.
D partisans almost certainly did not approve of anything Trump did.
That is the nature of partisan thinking. It is near blind (and sometimes absolutely blind) acceptance or rejection based on party affiliation.
Do you think Biden should have NOT led a worldwide agreement on sanctions against Russia for the invasion of Ukraine? Or do you think Biden should have committed US military to take direct action on Russia?
I can think of all sorts of ways for a PotUS to screw up handling of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Biden's clear position and consistent actions focused on sanctions and encouraging a diplomatic end is certainly a reasonable approach. You (almost certainly) find Biden's actions to be a fuck up and have a magical solution in mind to this mess that Biden did not pursue. No doubt the Pentagon will be all ears to hear of your better solution that they (and Biden) did not pursue.
Is there a reason you do not even mention August of last year in Afghanistan or the continuing fiascos on our Southern borders?
Yes, the reason is that my point was not claiming that Biden has not had failures.
Note that Bugsy claimed that Biden has not done anything right:
My counterpoint response was to note that I think Biden has indeed done something right. I then described a case in point.
Now, my question to you is why did you ignore the point and counterpoint and instead ask me why I did not enumerate Biden's failures? As if to suggest I am being contradictory / hypocritical / partisan.
Id go with those three.
I would like to see a link to that. As near as I can see he has either F'd everything up or followed the others instead of leading the way as he should.
That was not my intention at all. I asked what I thought was a honest question and you answered it honestly in my opinion. If I offended please accept my apology.
Except Biden did not lead. He followed others.
Blind partisanship yields a one-sided, negative perception ... a distorted reality.
Because Ds hate employment, especially with minorities, especially African Americans who run the risk of them falling off the democrat plantation.
They hate low gas prices, hence more than half increase strictly under Biden....with about a twenty percent continued increase under Biden and because of the war in Ukraine.
There is much, much more....but I'm sure you get the picture.
Yeah, I see you gratuitously engaging in a partisan rant while ignoring the core of my post:
It would have been good if Biden DID lead, but alas, he did, but from behind. He should have set sanctions long before the invasion, when Russia was building their forces on the border with Ukraine,
He waited weeks before he decided to stop the flow of Russian oil, after many other countries had already done so,
'Brandon is weak, and he displays it every day.
The threats of sanctions were supposed to be a deterrent. Preemptive sanctions are not...
Name those countries please.
Another talking point. Obviously no matter what Biden does you will consider it wrong. When he leads, the partisan talking point translates that it into following.
Is that your solution? Setting sanctions earlier would have stopped Putin?
It is quite obvious at this point that sanctions do not (and thus would not) stop Putin from engaging in war and over-the-top brutality. And sanctions are necessarily a measured response; one does not impose sanctions at the onset, one notes the consequences of hostility (as Biden did) and then increases sanctions commensurate with bad acts. Sanctions at best dissuade, they do not control.
The big picture is that Russia is a nuclear power and currently has leadership that actually threatens WWIII. To even hint nuclear war indicates leadership that is very dangerous to the planet and the balance of the planet needs to be very careful in how we respond. But letting Russia just waltz in and conquer any state it desires is unacceptable. In short, there is no clear solution to the problem Russia poses but there are myriad ways to cause this problem to escalate. Biden has delivered a steady, balanced hand during this crisis. Unless someone has a brilliant solution that Biden (and the balance of USA military intelligence) has overlooked, deeming Biden's handling of the Ukraine war a failure is simplistic, unreasonable bias.
Setting sanctions after has not had any effect.
[deleted]
Clearly you did not read my post. Do you even comprehend that Bugsy criticized Biden for not imposing sanctions earlier?
Buy a vowel.