Voting your conscience used to mean something

All of you who support Russian President Vladimir Putin’s unprovoked, murderous, immoral and inhuman attacks on the people of Ukraine, raise your hands.

And all of you who believe that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) — created in 1948 in the wake of the devastation of World War ll at the hands of Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich — together with its written-in-blood commitment to the defense of member democracies should they be attacked has run its course and should be relegated to the dustbin of history, raise your hands.

And all of you who don’t believe that supporting democracies around the world — you know, like America has had since we rebelled against the monarchy of King George III — is in America’s national interest, raise your hands.

Before we discuss how the House of Representatives of the greatest democracy in the world voted recently, let’s take a short trip down memory lane. You know, those times when dictatorships and authoritarian governments were pitted against democracies, which, by definition, promote liberty and freedom for their people.

We can start with World War I.

When the time came for America to decide whether to enter the war against those who would prey on Europe’s democracies and peace-loving countries, there was an overwhelming voice in favor of defeating the aggressors.

Among the small group of naysayers was a congresswoman from Montana named Jeannette Rankin. She was a committed pacifist — that used to be a thing when deeply help beliefs in Congress were a thing — and remained true to her beliefs. She hated all wars.

Fast forward to 1941 and the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt immediately asked Congress for a declaration of war against Japan knowing full well that such a vote would put America in the middle of World War ll.

In the midst of the horrors of the sneak attack and the carnage left in its wake, there was only one vote against the war. That’s right, the lifelong pacifist from Montana, Jeannette Rankin. She knew that her vote of conscience would end her political career, which it did, but principle — that used to be a thing too — was a strong motivator back in the day.

The point is that drawing the United States into war is usually

an extremely hard thing to do. An enemy has to destroy our ships and thousands of men on a lazy Sunday morning, blow up the World Trade Center with thousands of innocent civilian casualties in the worst attack on American soil or, perhaps, attack without provocation a country full of innocents trying to stop Russian bombs, missiles, rapists and murderers from doing their worst.

These are the things for which we should go to war. And, if every once in a while there is a pacifist who believes so strongly that war is just not the answer, so be it. Our system allows for principled dissent.

So, let’s get back to the vote this past week on a nonbinding resolution in the House of Representatives reaffirming America’s “unequivocal support for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) as an alliance founded on democratic principles.” It further called on the United States to support a Center for Democratic Resilience within NATO — the grotesque necessity for which we are witnessing in the streets and in basements of Ukraine on a nightly basis.

This time, as best I can tell, there weren’t any principled pacifists voting their conscience.

But the vote was 362-63 in favor of what should have been a unanimous mom and apple pie resolution. A vote proving to the world that the United States still stands for something good and honorable. And a vote that should give hope to those countries which are next on Vladimir Putin’s hit list. Or China’s. Or North Korea’s. Or Iran’s.

Who on earth could vote against that?

There were 63 Republicans who found the courage to support Putin — against the best interests of the United States. There was no principle at stake. Just a desire by the unprincipled to gin up the anti-democratic forces in the United States, the far-right conspiracy theorists who claim Putin is our friend and, of course, those who see some perverted money-raising scheme from the all-too-hapless rubes who prove daily that P.T. Barnum was right.

You can look up the list of the GOP pro-Putin Communist wing of the Republican Party and you will recognize many of them and their suspect voting records on all manner of legislation designed to undermine our democracy.

What you won’t find, I believe, are people with the principles of a Jeannette Rankin who, disagree with her as we must, still earns our respect for her consistency and the honor with which she exercised her responsibilities.

Oh, for the good old days.