On September 20, 2023, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul went on the floor of the United States Senate to manifest his opposition to sending additional military aid to Ukraine.
“I will not consent to expedited passage of any spending bill that provides any more American aid to Ukraine,” Paul stated. “It is as if no one has noticed that we have no extra money to send to Ukraine. Our deficit this year will exceed 1.5 trillion dollars. Borrowing money from China to send it to Ukraine makes no sense.”
Continuing to express his opposition to America’s involvement in the Russo-Ukrainian conflict, Paul said to Fox News host Maria Bartiromo on the morning of September 21 what the corporate media fails to say about Ukraine: “Ukraine banned the political parties, they’ve invaded churches, they’ve arrested priests, so no, it isn’t a democracy, it’s a corrupt regime.”
Strong majorities of both chambers of Congress back sending additional cash and armaments to Ukraine, despite the fact that American taxpayers have already doled out $113 billion in aid to Ukraine. Furthermore, Paul was joined by Missouri Senator Josh Hawley who told Fox’s Laura Ingraham, “We shouldn’t be spending a dime more on Ukraine. We need an accounting of every dime that has been spent so far. And I’m just tired of hearing the president say over and over that we have got to invest — this is an investment in the future of every nation. What about our nation? It’s not an investment in our future, in our people, in our jobs. That needs to be the priority.”
Mainstream Republican elected officials, however, continue to tow the establishment line on these issues. During an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper, former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley said to CNN’s Jake Tapper that “if Russia wins, it’ll take Poland and the Baltics next.”, effectively invoking a domino theory for 21st century geopolitics.
Other Republicans such as Kentucky Senator Mitch McCobnell have blatantly admitted that the increased military spending that the Russo-Ukrainian conflict had brought about has been great for certain economic sectors. In a post on X, the Senate Minority Leader stated: “Expanding our defense industrial base puts America in a stronger position to out-compete China.”
Overall, the GOP is still stuck on neocon time. With the exception of Rand Paul and some fellow travelers such as Josh Hawley and Mike Lee, the GOP will continue to sign off on prolonged military conflicts abroad that don’t advance the national interest.
Nothing short of a political coup that sees America First nationalists wrest power away from the neocon establishment in charge of the party has to happen if we want any form of geopolitical sanity to occur in the US.