Conservatism Inc. Surrenders (Again)
The Always Republican caucus gets ready to swallow hard.
1. Must Protect the Precious
Last week on the Secret Podcast with Sarah I got kind of exasperated at the members of the Always Republican crowd who see themselves as serious people.
Right now, today, we have the most significant geopolitical event since 9/11 going on in Europe. The outcome of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will reshape the European order and will heavily influence the future course of events in the Pacific. These events in turn will have a dramatic impact on Americans. The extent of China’s aggression will determine how we spend our public resources. The future of the global trade network will determine the prices we pay for just about everything.
The Democratic party is on the right side of Ukraine. They understand the stakes. They understand that this war is more than a “territorial dispute.” They understand that China’s designs on Taiwan are being heavily influenced by the conflict in Europe.
Parts of the Republican party—primarily the party’s Senate leadership (and Mike Pence)—also understand this. But the main body of the Republican party is moving the other way. Public opinion among Republican voters has swung against America’s involvement in Ukraine. And now the two guys eating up 75 percent of the electorate in the presidential primary campaign are also against America’s involvement in Ukraine. One of them (Donald Trump) is abjectly pro-Putin. The other (Ron DeSantis) is anti-anti-Putin.
How can a serious person look at this state of affairs and then say,
Yes, the Republican party is wrong on Ukraine and this failure could have catastrophic downstream effects for the geopolitical balance of the world. But there is a barista at Starbucks who has “she/her” on her name tag and this pronoun insanity must stop. I have to vote Republican.
And yet, that is exactly what the Always Republican caucus in Conservatism Inc. will do. Just watch.
There are two Big Issues in American politics at the moment: Ukraine and the
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to The Bulwark to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.