One of the characteristics of the Ukrainian American electorate is extreme loyalty to the point of being peculiar in a democracy which is still viable despite attempts to destroy it and currently undergoing a most chaotic time. I assume that a majority of Ukrainian Americans who are registered with the two major political parties in America are Republicans. This is due to a highly praiseworthy history with such Republican leaders as Abraham Lincoln, Dwight D. Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan.
Few Ukrainian Americans that I know have left the Republican Party irrespective of the fact that the party has moved half circle essentially and today is the party of Donald J Trump. Trump has none of the praiseworthy qualities of Lincoln, Eisenhower or Reagan. Loyalty is normally a positive trait. It becomes negative when the object of your blind loyalty is as hideous as Senators Mitch McConnell, Lindsey Graham, the hillbilly J.D. Vance and many others, former Republican Congressman George Santos. Most Republicans today lack integrity or principles. Its the old axiom that one is judged by the company one keeps. Upon the death of John McCain, Senator Graham chose Donald J. Trump as his friend and golf partner. J.D. Vance an attorney by training and ethically obliged to be a guardian of the rule of law, stated on national television that Trump should ignore court rulings. As to Ukraine they have or would sell out Ukraine to the Russians in a heartbeat. Their leader will settle the war in Ukraine by giving Ukrainians nothing and allowing Russia to prevail.
A peculiar phenomenon is taking place in the United States House of Representatives as I write. There are duelling discharge petitions to aid Ukraine. The Ukrainian American community is confused. Its leadership is more so confounded to the point that it has become paralyzed. Because of the reluctance of Speaker Mike Johnson to place aid to Ukraine on the House agenda, Democrats in the House have submitted for signatures a petition to discharge, meaning place a bill for aid to Ukraine, Israel, etc. on the House agenda without the Speaker’s consent. The petition requires 218 signatures. Most Democrats but not all have signed the petition. The bill to be placed on the agenda is a House version of the bill passed by bi-partisan support in the Senate.
The Democrat-initiated petition has not been signed by Republican Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick from Pennsylvania’s first congressional district where many Ukrainian Americans reside. In fact, recently the Ukrainian-American electorate in that district held a fundraiser for the Congressman attended by Ukrainian American Republicans, Democrats and independents. The apparent reason why Fitzpatrick and his Republican and even some Democratic allies in the House have not signed on is because two days after the Democratic petition was submitted they submitted their own discharge petition. Strangely enough, the leadership of the Ukrainian American community in this district bought this explanation. He said he was acting according to his conscience and that he would do right by Ukraine.
Congressman Fitzpatrick jointly chairs a Ukrainian Congressional Caucus with Democrat Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur from Ohio. Congresswoman Kaptur did sign the Democratic Petition. Frankly one cannot make this up. Apparently Fitzpatrick and Kaptur jointly chairing the
Ukrainian Caucus did not feel the need to communicate with each other. There is much chaos in the House which apparently has infected the Ukrainian Caucus!
The Fitzpatrick bill is a House initiative. It has not passed the Senate. It proposes less money for Ukraine than the one passed with Republican support in the Senate. It does include money for the southern border which was simply labelled previously “dead on arrival” by the Republicans in the House and their Bible toting Evangelical hypocrite posing as Speaker.
Perhaps we should not be surprised by the duplicity of Congressman Fitzpatrick. We should be astounded, however, by the naivete of the Ukrainians in his district. One of the leaders of the Ukrainian community in that district told me that “Fitzpatrick wants to act according to his conscience.” What a novelty! A Republican politician with a conscience!
And so the future existence of Ukraine depends on the whimsical conscience of a Republican Congressman and the naivete or sycophancy of his Ukrainian electorate. Ukraine will not go down in defeat because others, particularly in Europe, are stepping up. Perhaps proximity is the motivator. American isolationism and the duplicity of its politicians is taking front stage. It’s being aided and abetted by its Ukrainian American sycophants.
March 16, 2024 Askold Lozynskyj