Can We Stop the Politics and Get Together to Preserve Our Ideals and Our Freedom? And Save Ukraine?

I watched President Zelenskyy's speech to Congress today, along with the video he presented.  He got a standing ovation from the United States Congress, one of the few times when they all did the same thing at the same time together in years.  Remarkable.  It took a European country, a new democratic country formed out of the ruins of the Second World War and the ideological and economic ruins of the former Soviet Union and the old Czarist Russian Empire, being attacked by a Russian dictator, to get the members of Congress to show their appreciation and admiration, in one accord, by their applause.  

I'm going to call this exactly what it is.  It is the single most dangerous moment in American history.  It's the same kind of danger we've faced before, the threat of the destruction of our country and everything it stands for, but this is more dangerous than the threat has ever been before, because the threat of a nuclear holocaust is very real and very permanent.  This is a much bigger crisis than that which was created by the Civil War, or the Pearl Harbor attack, the Cuban Missile Crisis or 9-11.  And if our politicians can't come together, and decide that the survival of our nation is a common cause on which we can agree, and around which we must unify, then our survival and our future is in serious jeopardy. 

With Ukrainian cities in flames once again, as they were when the Nazis invaded in 1941, Ted Cruz opens his mouth and proves to the entire nation why he is the most hated man in the United States Senate.  Criticizing President Biden's foreign policy at a time like this is bad enough, a clearly unpatriotic and very blatantly selfish attempt to feather his own political nest.  But the fact that this man threw his own father and wife under the bus to go chasing after the former president, whose foreign policy was responsible for the fall of Afghanistan, the isolation of most of our allies including NATO and South Korea, and now the attack on Ukraine, all of which put our national security in this unprecedented danger, is more than just unpatriotic and anti-American.  He's a big part of the problem.  

President Biden's foreign policy isn't pushing the opposition party to get in line behind an unprovoked attack on a sovereign country for the wrong reason, capitalizing on the American reaction to 9-11.  That was a real foreign policy disaster, as was just about everything that followed during that administration.  President Biden didn't undermine the legitimately elected government of Afghanistan by direct negotiation with the Taliban.  He didn't isolate our NATO allies by cozying up to Putin.  He didn't isolate South Korea by cozying up to Kim Jong Un.  He didn't withhold military aid appropriated by Congress for Ukraine, bribing their president to invent lies about Joe Biden.  

That's what bad foreign policy looks like, Mr. Cruz.  And if you can't see all of that, and you can't get on board now, get behind the President and support our country and its efforts to help Ukraine, whatever decisions and actions that may require, then you need to resign now and get out of the way.  We don't need someone who won't defend his own father or wife against lies to be involved in the defense of our country.  

Follow Your Own Advice, Republicans

The GOP leadership wanted Democrats to drop the politics and get on board when Bush was about to invade Iraq, in the fervor and anger following 9-11.  And the vast majority of them did.  Bush was the President and commander-in-chief, and our military forces were about to be committed to an attack on a foreign country in a dangerous area of the world.  The President claimed he had intelligence that supported his decision.  It wasn't the time for partisanship or electioneering or grandstanding.  

And in spite of the duplicity that the GOP has shown, talking out of both sides of its mouth about how close to an election is too close to pick a Supreme Court justice, or their major shift on the moral standards for the Presidency between the 1990's and 2016, this is now the time when the unity of our country needs to be demonstrated by the unity of its government.  If there are members that just can't do that, then they need to step down and let someone else take their place who can.  That's what the people, whose government it is, expect from you.  

The Consequences May Have Quite a Price

If the notable GOP partisans, Cruz among them, won't stop using this as campaign material, or for Trump-fluffing, the price for not appearing unified is going to be quite high.  The mid-terms are pretty close.  With upwards of 80% of the voters on board with helping Ukraine, and a few more speeches from Zelinskyy like today's appeal, those who don't contribute to the unity of the government are going to pay a big price.  I'd guess that even down there in Texas, not getting on board with a cause like this will take a big chunk out of the votes for any Republican who might even use the word "Putin."  At any rate, the kind of support that is being generated now, and the way those poll numbers seem to be moving, indicate that if the Biden administration successfully handles the Ukraine war, and we all know that someone with his kind of experience is very likely going to be successful, the midterms will be an overwhelming affirmation of the Democratic party and a repudiation of the GOP.  

Stop playing politics.  Work together and save Ukraine.  Save our country.