Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
DC Freaks Out Over DeSantis’s Ukraine Comments; Voters Shrug
Several right-of-center politicians and commentators are outraged over Gov. Ron DeSantis’s latest statement on the war in Ukraine. The hawks accuse the Florida governor of showing American weakness. Trump accuses him of being too vague. Both claim his short statement threatens his electoral chances — a prediction which reveals a severe case of Beltway Brain.
Fox News host Tucker Carlson asked various potential presidential candidates for their positions on America’s response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. This was DeSantis’s response:
While the U.S. has many vital national interests — securing our borders, addressing the crisis of readiness within our military, achieving energy security and independence, and checking the economic, cultural, and military power of the Chinese Communist Party — becoming further entangled in a territorial dispute between Ukraine and Russia is not one of them.
Previously, the governor stuck to the vague assertion that we shouldn’t send Ukraine “a blank check.” His latest statement adds slightly more detail, with a strong emphasis on “slightly.”
Neither locks him into any firm position, which is an asset since no one knows the outcome of the expected spring offensives or what American voters will think of the issue in November 2024. Yes, it’s vague, as well it should be. Our leaders should constantly follow the facts on the ground and shift accordingly. The right strategy today probably won’t be the right strategy two years from now.
DeSantis is wrong to dismiss the full-blown invasion as a mere “territorial dispute”; outside of that, there’s little to criticize, let alone be outraged about. Either way, a vague foreign policy statement made 19 months before Election Day will have zero effect on said election.
Campaigns almost never win or lose on foreign policy; post-Cold War, a slight advantage accrues to the dovish. The rest of the country is not nearly as invested in Ukraine as DC tastemakers insist they be. In general, Americans sympathize with Ukrainians, but they’re more likely to rant about the price of eggs than developments across the Transdnieper.
This upsets foreign policy wonks since voters should care more about the latter than the former. In fact, it’s a moral failing that they don’t!
Meh. The kids want eggs for breakfast, but they’re getting a Lucky Charms knockoff instead. Voters are busy with everyday life, not geopolitical strategy on the other side of the world.
I think voters should care more about the $31.5 trillion federal debt, but here we are.
In contrast, President Biden promised to back Ukraine for “as long it takes.” Sorry, Joe, forever is a very long time. The US made similar promises to our Afghan allies before chaotically abandoning the country in Biden’s first year.
While the current president’s support seems earnest, he can’t promise anything beyond his administration. Especially if the American people turn against it. Which they are.
According to the Associated Press, in May 2022, 60% of Americans supported arming Ukraine. As of January, that has dropped to 48%. This still makes up a plurality but is trending the wrong way for the forever caucus. Who knows what it will be in a year and a half?
The US has already sent $112 billion to Ukraine with little debate and less oversight. For comparison, Ukraine’s entire GDP in 2020 was about $200 billion. On his recent visit, Biden casually announced a half a billion more, along with “artillery ammunition, anti-armor systems, and air surveillance radars to help protect the Ukrainian people from aerial bombardments.”
Rah-rah, Slava Ukraini, and all that, but there’s a limit to American largesse. And people get miffed when Biden jets to Kyiv with a suitcase full of money but avoids East Palestine, Ohio.
Politicians in both parties must understand that their first responsibility is to their own nation; allies come second. Forget this, and the people will toss them on their tin ears. DeSantis makes his priority clear: the United States of America.
Reagan-era Secretary of State George Shultz asked every new US ambassador a simple question. “I’m going to spin the globe and I want you to put your hand on your country.”
When they pointed to the nation assigned to them, Shultz corrected them. “Your country is the United States.”
DeSantis has passed this test. Biden has not.
Published in Elections, Foreign Policy, Politics
Explain “surrender gang”? Wat mean?
Or is this just another meaningless slur like “Putin-stooge” applied to anyone who objects to the Biden State Department’s Ukraine policy?
Are you suggesting Gary’s slur of “surrender gang” or “embrac[ing] surrender in Ukraine” isn’t true?
Gasp! That would mean Gary’s sources are just gaslighting!
Good.
You’re reading a lot into my comment that isn’t there. I merely observed that Korea and Vietnam were fought as part of a larger strategy to contain the expansion of Communism, and must be evaluated within that larger context.
I’m not sure what leaps of imagination got you from there to my endorsing the energy policies of the Biden administration.
How is it possible to surrender if you’re not in a war?
Even if it were possible, how is anything DeSantis said akin to surrendering?
Putin himself has said it’s not a border dispute. He said it was an operation to de-Nazify Ukraine. And then early in the war he sent massive armor (battalions?) to surround capture Kyiv which is deep in Ukraine, away from the border. In 2014 he took Crimea. In 2016 he took an Eastern province. ( I may have the details a little off; I’m going by memory. ) How many times is the border supposed to be his play? At some point any reasonable person will conclude it’s not about the border. And I assure you, it’s not about de-Nazification.
I took it as a possibility too. It was a shrewd political statement. He criticized the unaccountable spending, not the spending or the war. Of course, if spending is unaccountable it should be criticized. He left himself wiggle room to pivot in any direction and to parry any political attack. Like I said, this is an A+ in a political grade.
As it says in the article:
So yes, it is technically a “territorial dispute” in the sense that Putin disputes Ukraine’s right to control any territory at all. In that sense, China vs. Taiwan and Israel vs. the PLO are territorial disputes as well.
Bryan and Drew,
We are all adults and Ricochet is a civil discussion site.
Best,
Gary
Curious, then, that Putin hasn’t put any of these Nazis on display.
Territorial in this respect is not the same thing as border. He wants the whole damn thing.
This is a strange new line of yours.
Nevertheless, I stand by my prediction!
If the Russians stopped fighting, there’d be no more war. If the Ukrainians stopped fighting, there’d be no more Ukraine.
Well said!
If pigs had wings, they could fly. If I found an oil well in my Florida backyard, I would be rich…….
Yes.
Adults own their behavior.
I’d like to take credit for it, but I saw it on a banner.
Imagine buffalo wings made from pig wings!
I’m most familiar with this from the Israel context, and I agree whole-heartedly, and for the same reason.
Absolute rubbish. The war started in 2014 with the CIA- and EU-backed coup in which Russian speaking civilians were slaughtered by Ukrainians. There was a local militia formed in the Donbas to protect themselves against the Ukrainians. The Russians supplied the Donbas militias. The Russians and the militias had the Ukrainians surrounded and were about to crush them when Merkel went to Moscow to stop them. Putin agreed to a cease fire and the Minsk Agreement followed. Merkel among others later revealed that this was all a ploy to allow Nato to provide weapons to the Ukrainians and build them up. The Ukrainians continued to shell Donbas for the next 7 years and refused to implement the Minsk Agreements.
I still love how America is paying for Ukrainians to get better health care than many of Americas own citizens.
That opening sentence . . .
Love it!
And the rest . . .
And where is your evidence for what I count as about four conspiracies in that claim?
Wait . . . what are the four items here you doubt happened?
You see, Manny, all the mass graves for all those Russian-speakers were cleverly hidden in the parts of Ukraine that Russia hasn’t occupied yet.
Soylent Red.
Are you working as a propagandist for the Biden Administration? Anything that goes against their lies is a conspiracy theory.
Only someone who has paid absolutely no attention to the relationship between the Eastern European countries and the EU could say that with a straight face.
If anything it’s been the reverse to date: Eastern European countries have sent their own forces to fight and die in Iraq and Afghanistan to help us. Poland, for instance, had 44 soldiers killed in Afghanistan and 30 in Iraq.
Also, eastern Europe has resisted some of the more wokish aspects of the European union. It’s partly a generational conflict within eastern European countries, and partly a conflict with countries that have a real threat on their borders to consider.