The problem is that the current administration is completely unwilling to cut any money from any of its pet projects like the 'Green New Deal' aka the questionably named 'Inflation Reduction Act' in order to pay for more military aid to Ukraine. We are simply too far in debt at this point to simply print more money to send it to Ukraine. I know...most of the aid is in the form of older munitions and equipment that we are sending from our existing inventories. But all of that materiel has to be replaced, usually with new versions that cost more than the equipment that we sent to Ukraine. 'Where's the money?' The House has been willing to carve out 'pay fors' from other departments. But the Senate and White House have been fiercely resisting this.
Exactly right. For anyone paying attention and for anyone with any depth of historical understanding support for Ukraine is an easy call. This populism is utter folly.
As someone who agrees with you on the vast majority of the technical merits of supporting Ukraine, supporting Israel, the need for NATO, opposing China, and securing our border...can I make a small request?
Stop insulting the Trump crowd.
I supported DeSantis. Haley is a tool of the establishment. She is not a conservative, she is a sell-out.
I don't like Trump. A lot. For pretty much all the same reasons you don't like him.
But I will vote for him. Because Biden has shown himself to be FAR worse in every respect.
And Guess what? Trump DIDN'T start any wars and would not have. He's Not an idiot and calling him one makes those who do look foolish, because the man wouldn't be where he is if he were an idiot. He's smarter than most of us, if lacking in many other qualities.
He's not a dictator. For that matter, when did REAL conservatives forget that the Constitution places authority over the Executive branch in the sole person of the President! Conservatives are supposed to want a WEAK federal government, with a STRONG President able to direct that government.
What we've had for the last 50 years is the OPPOSITE. A government of bureaucrats who feel they have the RIGHT to dictate to the American people.
If anyone in government doesn't like what the President orders them to do, they have exactly TWO ethical choices.
Resign, if they are unwilling to carry out those orders.
Or Shut the Fuck up and salute, about face, turn to and carry out the orders.
Anything else is 5th column un-American political insurgency.
And before you think I'm just some MAGA ranter, I'm a career civil servant and former Marine officer and I'm STILL in government today. I have to post and write in pseudo for fear my government will destroy me for wrongthink.
Biden and the democrats WILL destroy our Republic. We'll have no freedom of speech, we'll be so woke we won't be able to tell day from night, and we'll be so overrun with 3rd world illegal aliens living off the government that we'll cease to be able to meet our other requirements.
Trump will say rude things about people and piss off bureaucrats who think they should be able to dictate what should happen.
The Constitution provides 2 mechanisms for dealing with a bad president.
1) Impeachment. They tried that. It was a farce, it was unjustified, and YES, Biden DID pressure Ukraine to favor his son.
2) Elections.
So my request to you is simple.
Wake up, look at Trumps record versus the angry tweets, and realize that as much as we BOTH dislike him, there is ZERO chance our Republic survives another 4 years of Biden and is able to return to course.
So lay off the grudge, get back in formation, and help us preserve the Republic.
That might have sounded Angry. It's not. It's a desperate hope.
I think you are an excellent Patriot, whose instincts on many things are in the right direction.
But you, and many others, have let your pride and anger get in the way of cold logic. You've let your pride and faith in institutions blind you to the rot that has consumed those institutions from the inside.
Trump is an ASS but most of his voters are not.
If more people like you buried the hatchet, it'd be easier for his supporters to listen to people like you on the technical issues like Ukraine.
If you care about Ukraine. If you, like me, know that preventing a Russian victory is ESSENTIAL to our national security...
Then we NEED to be able to make that case to Trump voters and, like it or not, that ain't gonna happen if you keep insulting them and him and pretending he's the worst ever. He's not.
However much I dislike him (and it IS a lot), I'd still crawl a mile over shit-stained concertina wire to vote for him now that he is (essentially) the nominee, because Biden and the Dems ARE that bad.
Sir - thanks for the Article with which I whole-heartedly agree. I write not so much about the article as I do about some of the comments I've read, with which I disagree.
1. Some comments seem to blame Ukraine for the war, citing corruption as a reason to walk away? If we want to talk about corruption, Ukrainian corruption pales in comparison to our own. IMHO, the 3 MOST corrupt nations on earth are Russia, China, & the good ole USA! We have a Congress which regulates our financial system - people come into Congress as paupers and walk away as multi-millionaires. Heck, the Clintons came into office with a net worth of about $250K and only God knows how much they had when they left office? Paul Pelosi [not a member of Congress but married to one] made upwards of $20 million on a 'stock deal' when he purchased stock just a few weeks before its value suddenly increased.
2. Another thing people seem to forget is Ukraine actually had a PEACEFUL turnover of power in their last presidential election which put Zelensky in office. That's more than can be said for OUR last presidential election, n'est-ce pas??
3. Corruption in Ukraine? I say 'Physician heal thyself'! OR as the Bible says, "Don't worry about the speck in your brother's eye, take care of the 'log' in your eye.
1) The "Republican Party" candidate selection process is controlled by whoever shows up at the precinct caucuses and primary elections. In my experience in Minnesota, Iowa and Wisconsin, you don't need to be a "registered Republican", or have ever given one dollar to the party, or have ever volunteered or attended a Republican event to participate. All it will take to nominate Nikki Haley (or Dean Philips as the Democrat nominee, for that matter) is for enough of the majority of Americans who don't want to see a Trump/Biden election again to show up. Don't wait until the general election and then complain about the lousy choices, get involved now and bring you friends, neighbors and family if you can. Go to your precinct caucus or vote in your state's primary. It ain't over until it's over.
2) I don't completely agree that we are getting the government we Americans deserve. The McGovern-Fraser "reforms" of 1969 made the formal, organized (or, for Republicans, somewhat-organized) political parties powerless and irrelevant. The guys in the smoke-filled rooms usually considered what kind of candidate would appeal to the average citizen, thus the saying that our politics was played between the 40-yard lines. When the "grass roots" were handed the reins, the folks who showed up were and are often highly motivated about a single issue and ideologically more between the goal lines and the 10-yard line and the candidates often reflect that. I believe the average voter expects the political parties to provide qualified, capable and reasonable candidates but we have a system that is too frequently incapable of doing that. I doubt that the average American was more involved or better informed about the candidate selection process 60 years ago, but the system did mostly deliver better candidates to choose from.
As usual spot on Bryan. I find it fascinating (the word I use when positions are verifiably stupid) that the 10% in the House you refer to have no interest in effective governing and little interest in the National Security of this nation. Lets be clear the MAGA Republicans (note I do not use GOP, since it has disappeared from being a relevant political force) are:
Not fiscal conservatives. Despite their rhetoric, they enthusiastically supported adding $8T to the national debt when Traitor Trump was in office.
Have no interest in National Security. They supported Traitor Trumps quacking about leaving NATO which is an essential element of our security. Are blocking aid to Ukraine which is valiantly supporting the freedom of democracy, and are enthusiastically supporting the Russian Dictator via Traitor Trump as declared, but not valid members of the Party of Reagan.
Routinely declare Traitor Trump's legal problems are motivated by Democrats. The public record clearly indicates that he has broken the wide range of laws and the current Administration (I'm a registered Republican) has gone out of its way to firewall itself from the Judiciary proceedings that are the just enforcing the laws of this country.
Most despicable, the group of so called "Freedom Caucus" were active members in supporting the insurrection of the lawfully elected Government of this country. Whether you like this Administration's policies or not, they won. Traitor Trump knows they won. These Reps have chosen to violate their sworn oaths to the Constitution and aligned themselves to a clear Traitor to this Country. Very sad.
I'm out of choices as a Republican. I was a supporter of Chris Christi as one of 2 Republican candidates willing to uphold the Constitution of the Unites States. Now he is out. Niki Haley might be interesting except she has publicly declared she would Pardon a Triator to this country.
I will be force to support whoever stands against Traitor Trump.
I don't know if your site accepts images but here is a source of your initial paragraph.
If not, here is H.L. Mencken: Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard. H.L. was an acid tongued bastard.
The use of Ukraine as a political scoring point is so F'ing sad.
Back in my day as a Child, Senator Vandenberg:
"As chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Vandenberg asserted that "politics stops at the water's edge" and cooperated with the Truman administration in forging bipartisan support. Francis O. Wilcox, the first chief of staff of the Foreign Relations Committee, recalled that Vandenberg's Senate career stood as a monument to bipartisanship in American foreign policy: "his legacy continues.""
"The clown-car that is our legislative branch federal government continues to serve up healthy heapings of failure, delivering unto the American people exactly what they want (and deserve)—good and hard. That last part—the “deserve” line—is a direct response to those I hear/read saying that the American people deserve better than the government they have. This is of course, merde, as we have EXACTLY what we deserve. We are a petulant, selfish, and irresponsible people, and we have put into political authority representatives who well-represent these virtues."
“Irresponsible” and “fickle” are the key words here. All any other country can know about us for sure is that every four years all of their relationships with the US will most likely change. And that is in addition to flip-flops of a more frequent nature. As one of the habitual sheepdogs regarding my own family’s safety, I understand the urge to protect others. And I understand the diplomatic reasons for supporting Ukraine in its war. I also understand and follow General Powell’s dictum that before you go into something you need to have an exit strategy. That strategy was missing in Vietnam, in Afghanistan, in Iraq, and in Ukraine. I suspect it is also missing wrt the Taiwan. The problem with being the economic and military juggernaut the US has become is that we have no living memory of what defeat really looks and feels like. Frustration and embarrassment yes, losing, no. No country has ever been able to win every fight. We need to pick the fronts we are willing to defend (economic, military, etc.) and then fight for them like the third monkey trying to get onto the Ark.
The deplatforming thing is why I doubt there's any danger of Trump winning the election. I don't think Normies (including lots of people who have cast votes for Trump in the past) have a clue how deranged he has become since 2016.
The media wing of the Democrats will certainly tell voters all about it, but not until the primaries are over.
It will be enough to push Biden over the line with a "trust Biden's shadowy handlers to manage his senility and prevent Selina Meyer from doing much damage once he's gone" message.
I'm still hoping that something will happen to break the fever before then, but it's looking less and less likely.
Right on the money. I'm a pretty progressive Democrat and feel the border is out of control. I'm no fan of Texas' leadership but border states shouldn't be left holding the bag on this. A rational solution there might lead to the Ukrainian support we must provide.
The problem is that the current administration is completely unwilling to cut any money from any of its pet projects like the 'Green New Deal' aka the questionably named 'Inflation Reduction Act' in order to pay for more military aid to Ukraine. We are simply too far in debt at this point to simply print more money to send it to Ukraine. I know...most of the aid is in the form of older munitions and equipment that we are sending from our existing inventories. But all of that materiel has to be replaced, usually with new versions that cost more than the equipment that we sent to Ukraine. 'Where's the money?' The House has been willing to carve out 'pay fors' from other departments. But the Senate and White House have been fiercely resisting this.
Exactly right. For anyone paying attention and for anyone with any depth of historical understanding support for Ukraine is an easy call. This populism is utter folly.
Bryan,
As someone who agrees with you on the vast majority of the technical merits of supporting Ukraine, supporting Israel, the need for NATO, opposing China, and securing our border...can I make a small request?
Stop insulting the Trump crowd.
I supported DeSantis. Haley is a tool of the establishment. She is not a conservative, she is a sell-out.
I don't like Trump. A lot. For pretty much all the same reasons you don't like him.
But I will vote for him. Because Biden has shown himself to be FAR worse in every respect.
And Guess what? Trump DIDN'T start any wars and would not have. He's Not an idiot and calling him one makes those who do look foolish, because the man wouldn't be where he is if he were an idiot. He's smarter than most of us, if lacking in many other qualities.
He's not a dictator. For that matter, when did REAL conservatives forget that the Constitution places authority over the Executive branch in the sole person of the President! Conservatives are supposed to want a WEAK federal government, with a STRONG President able to direct that government.
What we've had for the last 50 years is the OPPOSITE. A government of bureaucrats who feel they have the RIGHT to dictate to the American people.
If anyone in government doesn't like what the President orders them to do, they have exactly TWO ethical choices.
Resign, if they are unwilling to carry out those orders.
Or Shut the Fuck up and salute, about face, turn to and carry out the orders.
Anything else is 5th column un-American political insurgency.
And before you think I'm just some MAGA ranter, I'm a career civil servant and former Marine officer and I'm STILL in government today. I have to post and write in pseudo for fear my government will destroy me for wrongthink.
Biden and the democrats WILL destroy our Republic. We'll have no freedom of speech, we'll be so woke we won't be able to tell day from night, and we'll be so overrun with 3rd world illegal aliens living off the government that we'll cease to be able to meet our other requirements.
Trump will say rude things about people and piss off bureaucrats who think they should be able to dictate what should happen.
The Constitution provides 2 mechanisms for dealing with a bad president.
1) Impeachment. They tried that. It was a farce, it was unjustified, and YES, Biden DID pressure Ukraine to favor his son.
2) Elections.
So my request to you is simple.
Wake up, look at Trumps record versus the angry tweets, and realize that as much as we BOTH dislike him, there is ZERO chance our Republic survives another 4 years of Biden and is able to return to course.
So lay off the grudge, get back in formation, and help us preserve the Republic.
That might have sounded Angry. It's not. It's a desperate hope.
I think you are an excellent Patriot, whose instincts on many things are in the right direction.
But you, and many others, have let your pride and anger get in the way of cold logic. You've let your pride and faith in institutions blind you to the rot that has consumed those institutions from the inside.
Trump is an ASS but most of his voters are not.
If more people like you buried the hatchet, it'd be easier for his supporters to listen to people like you on the technical issues like Ukraine.
If you care about Ukraine. If you, like me, know that preventing a Russian victory is ESSENTIAL to our national security...
Then we NEED to be able to make that case to Trump voters and, like it or not, that ain't gonna happen if you keep insulting them and him and pretending he's the worst ever. He's not.
However much I dislike him (and it IS a lot), I'd still crawl a mile over shit-stained concertina wire to vote for him now that he is (essentially) the nominee, because Biden and the Dems ARE that bad.
Sir - thanks for the Article with which I whole-heartedly agree. I write not so much about the article as I do about some of the comments I've read, with which I disagree.
1. Some comments seem to blame Ukraine for the war, citing corruption as a reason to walk away? If we want to talk about corruption, Ukrainian corruption pales in comparison to our own. IMHO, the 3 MOST corrupt nations on earth are Russia, China, & the good ole USA! We have a Congress which regulates our financial system - people come into Congress as paupers and walk away as multi-millionaires. Heck, the Clintons came into office with a net worth of about $250K and only God knows how much they had when they left office? Paul Pelosi [not a member of Congress but married to one] made upwards of $20 million on a 'stock deal' when he purchased stock just a few weeks before its value suddenly increased.
2. Another thing people seem to forget is Ukraine actually had a PEACEFUL turnover of power in their last presidential election which put Zelensky in office. That's more than can be said for OUR last presidential election, n'est-ce pas??
3. Corruption in Ukraine? I say 'Physician heal thyself'! OR as the Bible says, "Don't worry about the speck in your brother's eye, take care of the 'log' in your eye.
Bryan - thanks for this essay. Two things:
1) The "Republican Party" candidate selection process is controlled by whoever shows up at the precinct caucuses and primary elections. In my experience in Minnesota, Iowa and Wisconsin, you don't need to be a "registered Republican", or have ever given one dollar to the party, or have ever volunteered or attended a Republican event to participate. All it will take to nominate Nikki Haley (or Dean Philips as the Democrat nominee, for that matter) is for enough of the majority of Americans who don't want to see a Trump/Biden election again to show up. Don't wait until the general election and then complain about the lousy choices, get involved now and bring you friends, neighbors and family if you can. Go to your precinct caucus or vote in your state's primary. It ain't over until it's over.
2) I don't completely agree that we are getting the government we Americans deserve. The McGovern-Fraser "reforms" of 1969 made the formal, organized (or, for Republicans, somewhat-organized) political parties powerless and irrelevant. The guys in the smoke-filled rooms usually considered what kind of candidate would appeal to the average citizen, thus the saying that our politics was played between the 40-yard lines. When the "grass roots" were handed the reins, the folks who showed up were and are often highly motivated about a single issue and ideologically more between the goal lines and the 10-yard line and the candidates often reflect that. I believe the average voter expects the political parties to provide qualified, capable and reasonable candidates but we have a system that is too frequently incapable of doing that. I doubt that the average American was more involved or better informed about the candidate selection process 60 years ago, but the system did mostly deliver better candidates to choose from.
As usual spot on Bryan. I find it fascinating (the word I use when positions are verifiably stupid) that the 10% in the House you refer to have no interest in effective governing and little interest in the National Security of this nation. Lets be clear the MAGA Republicans (note I do not use GOP, since it has disappeared from being a relevant political force) are:
Not fiscal conservatives. Despite their rhetoric, they enthusiastically supported adding $8T to the national debt when Traitor Trump was in office.
Have no interest in National Security. They supported Traitor Trumps quacking about leaving NATO which is an essential element of our security. Are blocking aid to Ukraine which is valiantly supporting the freedom of democracy, and are enthusiastically supporting the Russian Dictator via Traitor Trump as declared, but not valid members of the Party of Reagan.
Routinely declare Traitor Trump's legal problems are motivated by Democrats. The public record clearly indicates that he has broken the wide range of laws and the current Administration (I'm a registered Republican) has gone out of its way to firewall itself from the Judiciary proceedings that are the just enforcing the laws of this country.
Most despicable, the group of so called "Freedom Caucus" were active members in supporting the insurrection of the lawfully elected Government of this country. Whether you like this Administration's policies or not, they won. Traitor Trump knows they won. These Reps have chosen to violate their sworn oaths to the Constitution and aligned themselves to a clear Traitor to this Country. Very sad.
I'm out of choices as a Republican. I was a supporter of Chris Christi as one of 2 Republican candidates willing to uphold the Constitution of the Unites States. Now he is out. Niki Haley might be interesting except she has publicly declared she would Pardon a Triator to this country.
I will be force to support whoever stands against Traitor Trump.
/Users/mikeharper/Desktop/hlmencken1-2x.jpg
I don't know if your site accepts images but here is a source of your initial paragraph.
If not, here is H.L. Mencken: Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard. H.L. was an acid tongued bastard.
The use of Ukraine as a political scoring point is so F'ing sad.
Back in my day as a Child, Senator Vandenberg:
"As chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Vandenberg asserted that "politics stops at the water's edge" and cooperated with the Truman administration in forging bipartisan support. Francis O. Wilcox, the first chief of staff of the Foreign Relations Committee, recalled that Vandenberg's Senate career stood as a monument to bipartisanship in American foreign policy: "his legacy continues.""
"The clown-car that is our legislative branch federal government continues to serve up healthy heapings of failure, delivering unto the American people exactly what they want (and deserve)—good and hard. That last part—the “deserve” line—is a direct response to those I hear/read saying that the American people deserve better than the government they have. This is of course, merde, as we have EXACTLY what we deserve. We are a petulant, selfish, and irresponsible people, and we have put into political authority representatives who well-represent these virtues."
1000% correct. We deserve this.
“Irresponsible” and “fickle” are the key words here. All any other country can know about us for sure is that every four years all of their relationships with the US will most likely change. And that is in addition to flip-flops of a more frequent nature. As one of the habitual sheepdogs regarding my own family’s safety, I understand the urge to protect others. And I understand the diplomatic reasons for supporting Ukraine in its war. I also understand and follow General Powell’s dictum that before you go into something you need to have an exit strategy. That strategy was missing in Vietnam, in Afghanistan, in Iraq, and in Ukraine. I suspect it is also missing wrt the Taiwan. The problem with being the economic and military juggernaut the US has become is that we have no living memory of what defeat really looks and feels like. Frustration and embarrassment yes, losing, no. No country has ever been able to win every fight. We need to pick the fronts we are willing to defend (economic, military, etc.) and then fight for them like the third monkey trying to get onto the Ark.
The deplatforming thing is why I doubt there's any danger of Trump winning the election. I don't think Normies (including lots of people who have cast votes for Trump in the past) have a clue how deranged he has become since 2016.
The media wing of the Democrats will certainly tell voters all about it, but not until the primaries are over.
It will be enough to push Biden over the line with a "trust Biden's shadowy handlers to manage his senility and prevent Selina Meyer from doing much damage once he's gone" message.
I'm still hoping that something will happen to break the fever before then, but it's looking less and less likely.
Right on the money. I'm a pretty progressive Democrat and feel the border is out of control. I'm no fan of Texas' leadership but border states shouldn't be left holding the bag on this. A rational solution there might lead to the Ukrainian support we must provide.