A Congressional Infection

Top Republican leaders are alarmed that their colleagues openly flaunt demonstrably untrue Russian propaganda in the halls of Congress

To paraphrase Winston Churchill, "Congress has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire.” And to be fair, it’s not the entire Congress. Both side definitely do not do it, so let’s put this both sides-ism to rest. A distressingly large number of Republican Congresscritters have fallen under the sway of Russian propaganda, and you needn’t believe me.

Here, courtesy of Reuters Connect, are a couple of important Congressional Republicans. In another era, their warning would be run-of-the-mill. Today, it’s extraordinary: “Two U.S. Republican lawmakers warned that members of their party are repeating Moscow’s propaganda ‘on the House floor.’ Michael Turner, chair of the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, echoed statements last week by his fellow committee chair Michael McCaul, who said Russian misinformation had ‘infected a good chunk of my party’s base,’ mainly via conservative media. Meanwhile, leaked Kremlin documents showed that troll farms in Russia were instructed to undermine U.S. public support for Ukraine, painting the Ukrainian regime as corrupt and pushing for border security to take priority over aid for Kyiv, which the Donald Trump-aligned wing of the Republican party has repeatedly blocked.”

Go ahead. Take a moment to catch your breath. In case you’re confused, I’ll repeat: the chair of the Republican House Intelligence Committee says his party colleagues are advancing anti-American Kremlin propaganda on the House floor.

Rats are jumping off the sinking ship of traditional Republicanism. It happens; parties leave people, and people leave parties. Here’s a great example, in the antebellum, Democrats were a powerful Southern party promoting slavery as a state’s rights issue. Republicans under Abraham Lincoln were the abolitionist party.

Today, we’re seeing traditional Republicans in  Congress running for the exits. Some not even waiting for the November election. They’re just too fed up with the party of Marjorie Taylor Greene. They embody traditional conservative values like freedom. Surrendering Ukraine to Russia is a bridge too far for them, no matter what the Wicked Witch of North Georgia and her winged monkeys have to say.

There’s a plethora of research that says Russia is deeply and steadily engaged in a disinformation campaign that seeks to convince Americans that Ukraine must surrender territory to Russia. The Washington Post is reporting on, “an ongoing campaign that seeks to influence congressional and other political debates to stoke anti-Ukraine sentiment.”

Historian Heather Cox Richardson: “Senators Mitt Romney (R-UT), Thom Tillis (R-NC), and John Cornyn (R-TX) and a top aide to Senator Todd Young (R-IN), as well as former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley and even Trump’s vice president, Mike Pence, have warned about the party’s ties to Russia. Former Representative Liz Cheney (R-WY) has said the Republican Party now has “a Putin wing.” 

We never suspected the Republican party as a super-spreader of election denialism or fraud, but neither did we think we’d see it collapse under the weight of one grifting ex-president, but it has. The former Party of Lincoln has become the Party of Trump. What was once a fierce defender of democracy, a stalwart of anti-Russian expansion, and supporter of law and order, is now reliably pro-Russian and anti-law enforcement.

As if this change of heart isn’t enough, the Grifter-in-Chief installed his daughter-in-law as co-chair of the Republican National Committee, where she promptly implemented her selfish father-in-law’s plan to fire most of the staff and focus its fundraising—and its spending—on nothing but defending Trump. Forget any notion of continuing to help down-ballot candidates as has been its historical mission—now the only thing that matters is the top of the ticket.

The Party of Trump has completely abandoned the traditional Republican mission. A great example is this excerpt from a Ronald Reagan D-Day commemoration in France when he was president:

“We in America have learned bitter lessons from two World Wars: It is better to be here ready to protect the peace, than to take blind shelter across the sea, rushing to respond only after freedom is lost. We’ve learned that isolationism never was and never will be an acceptable response to tyrannical governments with an expansionist intent . . .”

I guess the question is: what have we really learned? For one thing, I have learned that isolationists, monarchists, and authoritarian fan-boys have been with us since the beginning. We’ve done a good job of keeping them in check, and the time has come for us to rally to the defense of democracy once again. 

Judge Royce Lamberth, a conservative Reagan appointee, has, in an unusual and important move, called the attempt by right-wing media, Trump, and Republican electeds to normalize January 6 rioters as “preposterous.”

Fortunately, there’s a cure for this antibiotic-resistant infection that continues to stymie Congress. It’s called Election Day, and it is fast approaching.

©2024 Jon Sinton