A failure of leadership
Republicans’ dysfunction in Congress has national and global consequences.
It’s tempting to describe the chaos that Republicans keep instigating in Congress as a comedy of errors. But the breathtaking scope of the dysfunction, and the national and international consequences of it, are far too serious — even deadly — for amusement.
The country is at the mercy of a party that simply refuses to govern in any meaningful way. In both the House and Senate, Republican officials dodge crisis after crisis in a shameless and shameful attempt to gain an edge for themselves and their presumptive presidential nominee in the November election.
If all this simply cost Republicans any claim they might have to leadership, that would be the party’s problem come November. But the stakes are much higher than that. America’s border security — which Republicans claim to hold so dearly — remains compromised, while the security of two allies, Israel and Ukraine, stands in jeopardy thanks to the GOP’s intransigence.
But most congressional
Republicans couldn’t be bothered with such concerns this past week. They torpedoed or stonewalled a national security bill that would have at least begun to address what both sides agree is an unacceptably high influx of immigrants at the southwestern border. The bill would also have provided aid to Israel amid its war with Hamas, and to Ukraine as it heads toward the second anniversary of Russia’s invasion.
While it had looked like responsibility might prevail in the Senate, most Republicans there snapped quickly in line after former president Donald Trump made it clear he did not want anything to pass that would make Mr. Biden and Democrats look good — not even a bill that followed much of the GOP’s hard line on immigration. So the deal died, although 17 Senate Republicans on Thursday agreed to support a bill for aid to Israel and Ukraine without the immigration deal. But its fate remains unclear in the House, which had declared the earlier package “dead on arrival.”
So what do Republicans consider the urgent business of the American people? That seems to be a House resolution absolving Mr. Trump of insurrection despite his incitement of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol in his attempt to undo Mr. Biden’s election and stay in power. Leading that cause is our own U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik, who is unabashedly angling to be Mr. Trump’s running mate. But Ms. Stefanik is hardly alone in putting Mr. Trump’s political future above the nation’s interests and excusing his long train of offenses, which also include sexual assault, attempted election tampering, mishandling classified material and trying to conceal it, and fraud. Mr. Trump’s iron-fisted grip on the Republican Party appears to have left Republicans in both the House and Senate with one mission above all — to thwart Mr. Biden at every turn, no matter the cost to the country.
But they bumbled even that near-unity last week with the House’s threatened impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas for — get this — failing to address the immigration problem they themselves refuse to address. With three Republicans unwilling to buy into this nonsense, the measure failed.
Clearly, Republicans would rather run on a hyped version of the very real border crisis than constructively address the issue. They would prefer to give lip service to fighting antisemitism than actually fund the Jewish state in a crisis. They would rather trumpet a slogan of making America great again than have America lead the vital cause of stopping Vladimir Putin in his imperialist tracks.
Ripe for satire though all that may be, it’s a sad state of affairs for a nation made increasingly impotent by these political games, domestically and in the eyes of friends and foes around the globe. Republicans may ultimately pay a price for this in November, and well they should for putting party above country. But that’s small comfort for a nation, and a world, that needs America to lead by example — right now.