Last night, Washington, D.C., witnessed a contrast so stark that it’s difficult to say when it might have been matched. On the one hand, Congress welcomed into its chamber a man who is currently leading his nation through a bloody war in which tens of thousands have died and millions have been displaced. Also present—or pointedly absent—were supposed representatives for millions of Americans who showed nothing but disdain for that man, the suffering of his people, and the role they play in saving not just their country but ours.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy brought with him a flag freshly taken from the front lines of the war, signed by soldiers who wanted to express their gratitude to the United States for the assistance it has provided. Those soldiers, fighting in the ruins if their homes, shadowed by death and threatened by a seemingly heartless foe, recognize that on their shoulders falls a burden carried only by a few in any century: the decision as to what kind of world goes forward, both now and for decades to come. Zelenskyy came to the House chamber as an emissary of those women and men, seeking to show their appreciation for aid already rendered as well as their desperate need for the tools that will allow the fight to be prosecuted to conclusion.
That Zelenskyy was in Washington and not in London, Paris, or anywhere else shows just how central the United States still remains—even at this late date, in spite of everything—to the enterprise of freedom. We are still the arsenal of democracy with all the responsibility that brings.
But even as Vice President Kamala Harris and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi were raising that Ukrainian battle flag at the front of the chamber, there were in the same room representatives of the same threat Ukraine is fighting. Their actions and words were not just a despicable shadow across a historic evening, but a sign of how close that enterprise stands to failure.
The people who are assailing Ukraine have no doubt about their purpose in that country, or what role this fight plays in the larger world. It takes no more than a quick look at their state-sponsored media to find the calls for extinction of the Ukrainian people before going on to other opponents.
That Zelenskyy came to the United States does us honor. That the joint session of Congress was opened by the enthusiastic greetings of representatives and senators who have supported Ukraine in its fight was genuinely heartwarming. Those who escorted Zelenskyy into the chamber and those who grew tearful applauding the man in a green shirt as he stepped to the podium have this in common with those fighting in the trenches at Bakhmut and Soledar: They knew they were making history.
But it’s impossible to ignore the shadow that hung over the back rows of that chamber. Some of that shadow was evident in the way that not every seat was filled. Earlier in the day, Pelosi mentioned her father’s presence in Congress on the day that Winston Churchill visited, the day after Christmas in 1941. On that day, every seat was swiftly filled. Doorkeepers placed extra chairs at the rear of the chamber to accommodate the swelling crowd, while the visitors’ galleries overflowed with family members and guests.
Of course, while Churchill’s dilemma in World War II seems all too similar to the difficulties now facing Zelenskyy, there was one big difference: The Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor just three weeks earlier. Only a few months earlier, in March 1941, 135 Republicans had voted against the Lend Lease Act. Had Churchill come to visit at that time, he may well have gotten a reception like that given to Zelenskyy by representatives like Thomas Massie of Kentucky.
Massie has voted against every bill containing any assistance to Ukraine and has declared that he is “proud” of those votes. On Wednesday, he not only refused to come to come to the joint session, he did so with a sneer.
Then there were those such as Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert and Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz. They did attend, but did so only so that they could show their disdain for Zelenskyy. They not only remained seated when their colleagues stood to greet the Ukrainian president, they made a point of visibly chattering during some of the most moving moments of the speech, of blatantly checking their phones, and of staring stony-faced toward Zelenskyy in those moments when he was urgently calling for the assistance of America.
In fact, the only moments that seemed to cause Gaetz and Boebert to smile during the whole evening was when they deliberately forced their way past the security checkpoint at the entrance of the chamber and pointedly ignored the police who tried to stop them from entering the joint session. Because nothing tops off a display of disrespect like adding an extra layer of threat.
They weren’t alone in their refusal to recognize the moment. When even Rep. Jim Jordan stood for one moment of applause, he still couldn’t get Georgia representative and gun store owner Andrew Clyde to stand. “I will not,” said Clyde. “I will not.”
All of these conveyers of contempt were eagerly welcomed by right-wing media, which provided a number of pundits to join in painting the event with sarcasm and disdain. However, as might be expected, it fell to Fox News’ Tucker Carlson to really plumb the depths of loathsomeness.
Every single Republican who went on Fox seemed obsessed with the idea that America is defined by “the border.” And maybe that’s the basic flaw with everything on the right, because America isn’t a block of land prescribed by borders. America is an idea. Thankfully, not everyone has forgotten that. During his campaign for the White House, President Joe Biden used that phrase as he address the “battle for the soul of this nation.”
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