Midwest
If you grew up in the Midwest you might not be familiar with the concept of a “third rail”. Public transportation was buses, and even the light rail in Cleveland used overhead electric cables to provide power. But if you grew in the “big city” you know what it is. On those Subway trains the electric power is provided by a third rail (two for the wheels, one for the power) located in between the tracks.
Touch the third rail and you’ll get a jolt of 750 volts of electricity. That’s seven times the current that comes out of the plugs in your house. Touching the third rail is deadly.
In American politics it used to be Social Security that was considered the “third rail”. If you tried to alter the social security system, increase the retirement age or reduce the benefit; every person over the age of fifty would consider you an absolute threat. And since that is one of the highest voting turnout groups in the nation, you’d lose the next election.
God, Guns, and Trump
But for Republicans, particularly those that intend to run for higher office, there is a new “third rail” in politics. His name is Donald Trump. How critical do they see Trump to their candidacies? Look at the latest ad for Republican Senate candidate Josh Mandel of Ohio: “Pro God, Pro Guns, Pro Trump” (not making that up!!!).
I watched Republican Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas on This Week, the ABC Sunday news show. Cotton is taking a tough stand on the Russian invasion of Ukraine, demanding that every possible sanction be placed on Vladimir Putin and Russia – TODAY. He wants arms shipped to the Ukrainian Army “yesterday”, and is adamant that Putin is a world danger. He’s getting as far “beyond” the Biden Administration as he can, trying to “out support” them for Ukraine.
But when he was asked about Donald Trump, the titular leader of the his own political party he failed to answer. Trump called Putin “smart and very savvy”, Cotton dodged a rebuttal. George Stephanopoulos asked him over and over again about Trump’s Putin-supportive speech at the Conservative Politic Action Committee. Cotton said he “refused to comment on other politicians”. Of course, that refusal doesn’t include Joe Biden.
A Rock and A Hard Place
Cotton isn’t the only Republican Senator (and potential Presidential candidate) who decided to shy away from the “third rail”. In fact, the list is so long, that it’s easier to name the Republican Senators who aren’t “afraid” of Trump: Romney, McConnell, and Portman. That one of them is retiring and the other two are in “safe” seats with no further ambitions, makes them “immune” from Trumpism. Romney even said, “…(H)ow anybody in this country who loves freedom… can side with Putin; it’s almost treasonous”.
So the Republican Party is stuck between the proverbial “rock and a hard place”: “Putin and Trump”. The reasonable sense of the American people (Tucker Carlson excepted) is that Putin is leading a war of conquest against democratic Ukraine. Even renegade Democrat Tulsi Gabbard agrees. We Americans know a bully when we see one, and the tanks move across the border remind us of the Cold War. We knew who “the enemy” was then, watching tanks roll over people as revolts were put down in Hungary and Czechoslovakia. And we know it now, as Putin literally cannot personally stand the “scent” of democracy on his own front door step.
Cold War
So it’s easy for Republicans (and most Democrats as well) to fall into the old Cold War language and reactions. And, by the way, it’s the right thing to do. But the former President has somehow set himself in the position where he cannot find any “good” in the Biden Administration. To paraphrase Trump; “Putin is smart, NATO is not so smart, and the current Administration is ‘very dumb’”. So if Biden is “wrong”, then Putin is “right” – and for those Republicans who need Trump voters to get re-elected, there is that crushing feeling of the walls closing in.
At least Tom Cotton simply refused to comment. Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was effusive about Putin: calling him talented, savvy, and a capable statesman. In fact, Pompeo went on to say, ““He was a KGB agent, for goodness sakes. He knows how to use power. We should respect that,” as if the Soviet secret police was an admirable institution (Kansas City).
Most Americans – Democrats and Republicans alike, rise to defend democracy against oppression. Ukraine is not Afghanistan, President Zelenskyy did not get on a plane out of town at the first hint of trouble, and the Ukrainian Army is being joined by their civilians as they fight against the Russians. We, in the “free world” (more Cold War terminology) are doing the right thing – standing with them.
The former President in Mara Lago stands with Putin. Maybe, he’s finally found a way to get “left behind”. Other Republicans should take note.
