Party or patriotism?

As I watched the sickening spectacle unfold in Helsinki on Monday, I was surely not the only central Arkansan with the question for our Republican congressional delegation: Where are you now?

To be sure, in the hours following the nauseating image of an American president kowtowing to a brutal dictator and disparaging the men and women of our nation’s military and civilian intelligence community, you each issued statements critical of Russian aggression. These were embarrassingly mild in rebuking the disastrous actions of your party’s leader. Senators, you both declined to call out the president by name. Congressman Hill, you feebly chastised Trump for having “missed an opportunity” to let the Russians know we don’t believe their denials. Other than giving you political cover, it is unclear what this daring rhetoric will accomplish.

So the question, “Where are you now?” is not about words, but actions. Will you support legislation today to protect the Mueller investigation from presidential interference and firings in the Justice Department? Will you use the power of your office from this point forward to withhold nominations to judicial positions and foreign policy posts until the president explicitly repudiates Putin’s lies? Will you remember that you belong to a co-equal branch of government, and the one that most has an obligation to represent the people of Arkansas?

Historians to come will surely use Helsinki to mark a dividing line between party and patriotism. Very soon it will be too late to be on the right side of it.

STACEY SCHWARTZKOPF

Conway