With Ukraine War, Republicans find religion on democracy

McCarthy had no such reservations, however, about Trump, as journalist Aaron Rupar notes. The GOP House leader, who’s been working diligently to purge his conference of all Trump apostates “staunchly opposed Trump’s impeachment for using military aide [sic] to extort Ukraine,” Rupar recently observed on Twitter.

It’s safe to say that the Republicans who embraced Trump, and looked the other way at his warm embrace of the “murderous thug” in Moscow whose regime meddled in the 2016 elections, now face a credibility gap as wide as the Volga River they race to get on the right side of history.

And it’ll take some doing. In a Fox News poll released last month, prior to the Russian invasion, more Republicans had a negative view of Biden than they did of Putin. And if their current contortions weren’t so reality-beggaring, they might almost be amusing.

“It’s clear there is bipartisan consensus in the House and Senate to support Ukraine with weapons and impose even tougher sanctions on Putin,” Perry’s fellow Pennsylvania Republican, Rep. Dan Meuser, wrote on Twitter after joining a bipartisan call with Zelenskyy last weekend.

Now rewind a year.

Hours after the murderous horde stormed the Capitol in January 2021, Meuser still joined with seven of his home state GOP colleagues to object to Pennsylvania’s election results. And, just like his Republican colleagues who all won re-election under the same ground rules, Meuser did not step up to contest the legitimacy of his own contest.

Some attempted violent overthrows of democratically elected governments just hit differently, it seems.

Despite his own sagging poll numbers, Biden got a small bounce from his State of the Union address, which prominently featured tough talk on Russia and ardent support for Ukraine. Voters narrowly approve of Biden’s management of the growing crisis, 46-42 percent, in a recent Politico/Morning Consult poll.

That might not be enough to save Biden and his fellow Democrats as they try to hang onto the House and Senate this fall.

But they can spend every minute between now and November reminding voters that, when it counted, the congressional GOP was missing in action when it was their turn to defend democracy at home.

An award-winning political journalist, John L. Micek is Editor-in-Chief of The Pennsylvania Capital-Star in Harrisburg, Pa. Email him at jmicek@penncapital-star.com and follow him on Twitter @ByJohnLMicek.