MAGA Republicans Pose Threat to U.S. National Security and FreedomMany MAGA Republicans have positioned themselves as weak and even impotent on the fundamental issue of basic freedom, even while the U.S. is effectively at war.The United States is, effectively, at war. Except it’s a different kind of war so far. One in which we don’t have troops on the ground. It’s an indirect conflict. We, along with our closest allies, are in a fight against rising global fascism as represented most horrifically right now by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. But the threat is bigger than Ukraine, and that’s why we and our closest allies are pouring so many resources into helping Ukraine defend itself. Putin isn’t going to stop at Ukraine. He has an avaricious, predatory outlook and is driven by revenge against countries he feels have weakened and wronged Russia.MAGA Republicans continue to attack President Biden and even call for his impeachment as he takes brave steps to help Ukraine win this bloody, tragic, genocidal war Russia is waging on them in their home country.It’s past time wondering if this is a feature, not a bug, given the connections and money flowing from Russia to MAGA Republicans, their leader, and even Republican Senate funds and the NRA. There’s a pattern that is simply too blatant to ignore, but at the same time there is not evidence that someone like Marjorie Taylor Greene or Speaker Kevin McCarthy is working for Putin or Russian oligarchs.But they are both, for some reason, doing their best to assist Putin in his goal to undermine democracy. Their latest effort being to give Tucker Carlson, himself an ongoing mouthpiece for Russian propaganda, access to footage from the January 6th terrorist attack, which Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer pointed out puts everyone in that building at risk because it shows, for example, where all of the security cameras are.“(T)he Senate strongly objects to the release of this sensitive security footage to Tucker Carlson & Fox News. The speaker— nor any elected official— does not have the right to jeopardize the safety of senators nor Senate & Capitol staff for their own political purposes.”State of PlayGlobally, every weak spot in the fabric of democracy is strained as encroaching authoritarianism keeps pushing at the vulnerable spots. This is why it’s so important that we somehow get Republicans on board to act as a unified coalition on this one issue.Russia pulled out of the START treaty on Wednesday, the last arms control treaty between the United States and Russia. Together, the two countries possess “roughly 90 percent of the world's nuclear weapons with a stockpile of over 8,000 between them.”Foreign policy reporter Laura Rozen wrote on her Diplomatic Substack, “Putin holds arms treaty ‘hostage’ to war on Ukraine,” noting, “World powers that previously compartmentalized arms control from their other disagreements now no longer appear willing to do so, putting solutions to limit the threat of nuclear proliferation in jeopardy, on Iran and globally.”“It’s terrible,” one European official who works on arms control said, about the end of Western/Russian cooperation on curbing Iran’s nuclear program. “The work of twenty years somehow lost.”That’s pretty alarming. Alarming enough that anyone with an ounce of care for the basic concept of freedom should be grabbing the hands of whoever is nearest to help hold the line. But that’s not happening here, in the United States. Too many MAGA Republicans are undermining the United States’ unity, with Marjorie Taylor Greene even calling for secession in the form of a national divorce.World War III Threats… Can’t Ukraine Just Give In For “Peace”?One of Russia’s strongest talking points to get people to parrot their propaganda is that if Ukraine would just give in, there would be peace and if they don’t, there will be World War III.This idea has taken root on both the far Left and not so far Right, and is repeated constantly on conservative media, Elon Musk repeats it on Twitter, which he owns now. Most of you probably know this isn’t workable, but let’s examine what’s going on right now because the stakes have been raised by Russia with the START treaty suspension and threats to other countries.This conflict, which has given rise to the bloodiest war since World War II, started in 2014 when Russia annexed Crimea. Ukraine was a divided state and Russia took advantage of this by arming separatists. (This might seem little too close to home for comfort for those of us paying attention to Putin’s successful efforts at dividing this country - see MTG’s “divorce” call.) Ukraine represents power to Russia, power and the image of being a superpower. Putin wants it back because Ukrainian President Zelenskyy is aligned with western-style democracy, which makes a stark contrast to Putin’s autocratic regime in Russia. There are additional interests for Russia in terms of trade, energy, and Putin’s feeling that NATO’s post–Cold War expansion is a humiliation.“During one year of the full-scale invasion Russia launched almost 5000 missiles and made almost 3500 airstrikes against Ukraine. Russia also made almost 1100 attacks using drones, the Ukrainian General Staff reported,” the Kyiv Post reported. Russia is threatening GermanyDuring a rally led by Putin on Wednesday, Russians sang that they are “defending the fatherland by raising the red flag over Berlin.”The Advisor to the Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine warned: “Attention, Germany! Russians sing about "Russian flag over Berlin" at Luzhniki stadium.”Russia, the country that invaded the sovereign state of Ukraine, calls Ukrainians “demons” and claims that missiles are flying as a “cure for sick Ukrainians.”“Meanwhile in Mordor: Putin led another rally, full of gruesome narratives. Listen to the words of their songs, about their arms covered in blood up to their elbows and sending missiles ‘to cure sick Ukrainians,’ whom they also described as "demons,’” Russian media monitor Julia Davis wrote above this clip.ChinaThere is also growing concern over China’s support for Russia’s military.MexicoJust as an example of how the world is at war with encroaching authoritarianism, the President of Mexico’s majority in Congress passed “legal changes to gut Mexico's independent elections body in what most experts see as the country's most consequential democratic setback in recent decades.”If that sounds a lot like what Ron DeSantis is doing in Florida, based on the model set by Viktor Orbán of Hungary, that’s because it is.Bowing Down to Global ThreatThe president of the United States is very busy upholding freedom. Naturally, MAGA Republicans are outraged.As Republicans war within their own party about support for Ukraine and the more vocal members attack President Biden for his show of strength and support for Ukraine via his iconic visit, Florida Republican Representative Matt Gaetz introduced a bill to cease support, citing Ukraine “fatigue” (if you Google this phrase, you’ll see that they’re running with it as hard as they can with former Rush Limbaugh replacement host using that phrase as the title to an opinion piece claiming that Ukraine fatigue is “building on the horizon”). Speaker McCarthy is doing that McCarthy dance, the one many have tried before him and failed, of not taking a public side but even then he still made sure to make it known that Republicans wouldn’t rubber stamp any aide for Ukraine.McCarthy, who barely won his gavel after a record setting 15 rounds of votes, hit Biden with an accusation that his actions are “a bit too late.” So, they don’t support Ukraine funds and they hate Biden’s trip to Ukraine, but also, Biden is late and not doing enough. Yikes. Over in the Senate, the grown up in the room happens to be the same Senator who single-handedly stole a Supreme Court seat from President Obama, and thus can be held responsible for a lot of the resulting current loss of freedoms in this country (from abortion to state’s rights to make gun laws).Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell tried to change the narrative from the weak isolationist voices in his party to his own pronouncement, “Reports about the death of Republican support for strong American leadership in the world have been greatly exaggerated.”Well. Even Mitch McConnell can’t bring Marjorie Taylor Greene to heel to pretend to support a Democratic president purely because it looks bad on the global stage to have Republicans not supporting freedom and American leadership.Former Republican Representative Adam Kinszinger wrote of Greene’s secession push, “In the old days a politician would be kicked out for oppos
