Johnson’s nd moral stand on Ukraine
It’s not often that you can accuse any leading member of the Republican party of taking a brave stand rooted in courage and principle. Disruption has become the core of the party’s code of conduct. Partisan gain has long since taken precedence over all else, and especially over any form of action that might potentially be identified as a success for the enemy, meaning any and all political rivals, especially the White House.
Which makes it all the more astounding that the Republican-controlled House of Representatives managed to pass a suite of desperately needed measures over the weekend, thanks to the principled manoeuvring of an ultraconservative Speaker and dedicated Trump loyalist who very possibly could lose his job over it.
Mike Johnson pushed through bills providing tens of billions in aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, in the face of frenzied opposition from his party’s most devoted obstructionists, even as they publicly plotted a putsch to oust him.
Johnson’s measures succeeded thanks to the backing of Democrats, who provided the extra votes needed to foil efforts by his Republican colleagues to scuttle the initiative. That alone marks him as treasonous to elements of his party who view bipartisan co-operation as a betrayal. Before the vote was taken, moves were already afoot to have him removed from the speakership.
In addition to accepting help from Democrats, Johnson found a way to outflank opponents by breaking a single piece of contentious legislation into separate pieces, then aiming each at pockets of legislators who were willing to pass the smaller bits without having to embrace the whole. Once the three gain Senate approval, which is not expected to be difficult, they can be reunited as a single unit.
The result is that Ukraine will get US$61 billion ($84 billion) it desperately needs as it tries to halt Russian gains on the battlefield and restock its badly depleted store of arms and ammunition. So dire had Kyiv’s outlook become that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked Johnson for “the decision that keeps history on the right track.”
In addition to Ukraine, Taiwan will receive US$8 billion as a signal to China that Washington has no intention of abandoning its ally, and Israel will get $26 billion, which includes humanitarian aid for civilians in Gaza.
Though Republicans have a thin majority in the House, the Ukraine bill passed because 210 Democrats added their support to the 101 Republicans who backed Johnson, compared to 112 who voted against. It was an important victory for Democrats — if requiring months of squabbling to approve something so obviously necessary can be deemed a victory.
It could also have been a success for Republicans if so many of them didn’t treat any attempt at bipartisan co-operation with a mix of disregard and contempt. That it came under Johnson’s leadership could only add to the fury of the GOP’S hardest hardliners, who couldn’t have expected such a display of backbone from a Speaker they grudgingly approved less than six months ago in the belief that he was one of their own.
Johnson — so often referred to as “little known” when he got the job, it could have been his middle name — acquired his post only after 14 other candidates fell short during three weeks of factional chaos that followed the abrupt ouster of his predecessor.
An evangelical Christian from Louisiana, admirer of former president Donald Trump and social conservative who views homosexuality as “inherently unnatural” and opted to marry under a special state provision that makes divorce particularly difficult, he offered every indication of being a reliable member of the party’s most recalcitrant wing.
Yet Johnson has surprised nearly everyone. Though a leading figure in efforts to overturn the 2020 election, he has also argued that, “Our political rivals in Congress are not our enemies.” In his earliest days as Speaker, he foiled an effort by hardliners to force a government shutdown to embarrass President Joe Biden by negotiating a deal that kept the money flowing.
In that instance, too, he needed Democrats to provide a majority of the votes, earning him fierce denunciations from the party’s furthest edges and ongoing threats to send him packing, just as they’d done with his predecessor.
While the plotting is likely to continue, the conundrum is in the shortage of alternatives: having accepted Johnson largely because they couldn’t agree on anyone else, caucus members are stuck with the knowledge that another coup would trigger more chaos, further damaging the party’s already battered reputation. That may by why Trump offered his tepid blessing to Johnson when the Speaker journeyed to Mar-a-lago just days before the Ukraine vote, allowing that he was “doing about as good as you’re going to do.”
It would be nice to think Johnson’s victory signals a turning point, a hint that Congress, his party and maybe the country itself is moving back toward something resembling a world power that takes its position of responsibility seriously and appreciates that western unity and reliability are essential elements to the defence of democracy.
But that may be expecting too much, especially at the start of seven months of all-out warfare for the White House. Johnson’s stand could instead be like those moments that sometimes occur with dementia patients, when the clouds suddenly part and clarity and coherence return. Unfortunately, such moments are brief, and tend mainly to remind us of what’s been lost.
MOVES WERE ALREADY AFOOT TO HAVE HIM REMOVED.