“This is disgraceful,” said Senator J. D. Vance following the passage through the Senate, earlier this year, of legislation designed to provide support to America’s embattled partners abroad. “And if you are a leader of this country, of the United States of America, you should be getting fired up about that.” Along with the indecorous Ukraine critics he’s decided to make his allies, Vance promoted himself as the true champion for the unexpressed views of a majority of Republican voters. His opposition to supporting Ukraine’s defense against Russia’s war of conquest was an expression of his voters’ views, Vance insisted.
It seemed like Vance had the facts on his side. The polling had long indicated that support for Ukraine’s cause was on the decline among Republican voters, and Speaker Mike Johnson’s reluctance to take up the Senate bill appeared to support the claim that Republicans with their ears to the ground understood that endorsing Kyiv’s cause represented a political liability. “Credit to Mike Johnson for being the one person in that meeting who’s standing there saying, ‘We have got to put the interest of our own citizens first,’” said Vance glowingly.
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