Molting Hawks

Will isolationists dominate the 2024 Republican field?

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Mike Pompeo. (Photo by Mateusz Wlodarczyk/NurPhoto/Getty Images.)

To understand politics in 2022, consider two tweets from yesterday. The first comes from a progressive Democrat—sorry, former Democrat—known for, among other things, supporting aggressive gun control and divestment from fossil fuels. A person occasionally described in Russian state media as “our girlfriend Tulsi.”

The second comes from a lifelong Republican who held not one but two Cabinet positions in the Trump administration.

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  1. Meggymish

    This is depressingly accurate, and it makes me want to bang my head against the wall in sheer rage. The same populists who are screeching "America First!" didn't screech about the trillions of dollars Trump's budgets called for before the pandemic, nor did they scream and yell about the spending Trump and Congress did once COVID hit. Now, suddenly, they're concerned about budgets again? No. They are just following their leader, who has been a Putin fanboi for a long time. It disgusts me.

    I'm "old enough to remember" the 2012 presidential debate between Obama and Romney, wherein Romney answered the question "who is our biggest geopolitical for" with "Russia," and the right leapt to his defense. To be fair, these days China is a bigger threat, but Russia is still a threat: to Europe, and to the West generally with his troll farms, hybrid warfare, and so on, spreading distrust, discontent and anti-Americanism even in our own country. The populist right is playing right into his hands.

    Ukraine has been the USSR's victim, Germany's victim, and now Russia's victim again, and while the Budapest Memorandum was not a formal mutual defense treaty, if we abandon Ukrainians to a genocidal war, it would erode the trust of our allies even more than the disastrous pullout from Afghanistan. It would also embolden other dictators to act, as one could argue the Afghanistan debacle emboldened Putin.

    They're sick of being the world's police? Would they rather it were China? I don't know the answer to that anymore.

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    Jonathan Hunt

    This attitude of capitulation to Russia will take over the right, we should not fool ourselves. "Make America Nevelle Chamberlain". All in the name of being contrarian to the current admin, because there can be no common ground with the left.

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    Janet W

    Is Trump anti Ukraine because Zelensky wouldn’t play ball on Hunter Biden or does he just have a man crush on Putin?

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  4. Genny

    Most Republican voters are useful idiots who'll swallow whatever un-American idea is being fed to them at the moment. And since this gullible bunch has the power to vote in the politicians, the campaign trail is nothing more than constant regurgitation. Republican voters never think to ask who is pulling their strings, and why.

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    1. Ken Motamed

      And what anti-American ideas are being fed to Democratic voters?

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    Dexember

    test

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  6. Tom Doniphon

    Test comment

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  7. Dandudley01

    I'm a bit more optimistic about Republican responses to the Russian invasion of Ukraine; most Congressional Republicans demand support for Ukraine, with the few exceptions being people who were loons anyway, like Marjorie Taylor Greene and her cohorts. Same for Congressional Democrats; most of them support our support for Ukraine.

    Most of the foot-dragging has been from the administration, it seems - the most egregious example being Biden torpedoing a plan to get Polish MiG-29s handed over to Ukraine, at the cost of us giving them a good deal on purchasing new F-16s - or was it some used F-16s? There was similar foot-dragging on giving them HIMARS if I remember right.

    Which is not to say the Biden administration has done everything wrong, because they haven't - but it certainly seems like Congress is pressing harder to aid Ukraine than the administration is. I get the feeling that in the early days the administration's plan was to give just enough to Ukraine so that when they inevitably folded (as the administration believed) we could say "well, we tried" and move on; it was originally a face-saving fig leaf, nothing more. Fortunately Ukrainian successes have prompted the US to give more and more over time.

    I think we get too reductive by reducing everything to looking at what percentage of the Republican voting base is "MAGA"; people can vote for Trump, even consider themselves a Trump fan, without agreeing with him in every way. I'm sure there are isolationists who are leery about protectionism, and there are people who like Trump's protectionism who are skeptical of his isolationism. The sheer spectacle of Ukraine fending off Russia, demonstrating the current weakness of Russia, is enough to drive many to hope for something better than "either we let Russia win or he'll just nuke everybody!"

    And I think candidates will reflect that. Come debate time they'll need something better than an updated version of "Why Die for Danzig?" to offer to the public.

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    1. Meggymish

      I sure hope you are right about that. Maybe the populist right will rediscover a spine, and reject the loony bin candidates. But the people on the right I see on Twitter these days make me very dubious about that.

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  8. CB76

    * The reason Putin didn’t invade Ukraine during Trump’s term isn’t because he feared that the madman might nuke Russia. It’s because he thought Trump might win a second term and withdraw from NATO voluntarily, shattering the alliance and leaving any potential western resistance to an invasion of Ukraine in disarray. As David Frum put it, “the criminal doesn’t mug the old lady when he’s got her on the verge of signing her entire estate over to him.” *

    You tell 'em Nick.

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  9. Rossknode

    Excellent read. It's disgusting how the Republicans have turned isolationist. We've spent pennies cutting down the Russian war machine and sent a clear message to China. Seems like money well spent.

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    Mattjabour

    This guy is rapidly becoming my favorite Dispatch contributor.

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About Nick Catoggio

Nick Catoggio is a staff writer for The Dispatch and writes the newsletter Boiling Frogs. He previously blogged as Allahpundit for Hot Air. ⁣  ⁣  Subscribe to Boiling Frogs here »
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