If MAGA Mike had been Majority Leader in February 1941
Over the past four months Speaker of the House Mike Johnson has refused to allow any bills to provide military aid to Ukraine to receive a vote in the House. This, despite his early promise to support aid to Ukraine. The Senate has voted on more than one bill to provide assistance but despite bipartisan support in the Senate, Speaker Johnson has not allowed those bills to the House floor, and even now despite Ukraine’s desperate need of ammunition, Johnson and the MAGA majority in the House are willing to let Ukrainians die and Ukraine be subjected to Vladimir Putin’s genocidal invasion.
Ukrainian forces have fought against the odds against the Russian invaders, inflicting great losses on the Russian armed forces. Initially, the United States answered the call for help, along with NATO and European Union members. But since the fall when Johnson took over the House, aid from the U.S. has been frozen, and Ukrainians, who stand on the front line against Putin’s plans for Europe and the United States are dying. This should not be surprising since former President, and now candidate Trump has actively been colluding with Putin against Ukraine, Europe, and yes, the United States. Now he is dictating policy to Speaker Johnson who is effectively Putin’s puppet, in much the same way many Republican Laders were for Hitler in the late 1930s to 1941.
In July of 1941, Great Britain stood alone against the Nazi onslaught. American aid to democracies standing against Hitler was limited by Congress to what they could purchase outright. As a result, France fell before any significant amount of military aid arrived. In response, President Franklin Roosevelt promised aid to Britain and said in August 1940 that the United States would be the arsenal of democracy. Even so the President had to fight against isolationist Republicans, as well as Republicans like Senator Ernest Lundeen who actively supported Nazi propaganda efforts in the United States, and who colluded with pro-Nazi groups in the United States. The opponents to aid to Britain were aided by men like Father Caughlin whose radio program was the most popular in the United States, and men like industrialist Henry Ford and aviation hero Charles Lindbergh who were active supporters of Hitler and Naziism. They wanted the United States to support Hitler’s Germany.
Fortunately, President Roosevelt was made of sterner stuff and cobbled together majority support in his Democrat Party, which controlled Congress to introduce a bill in the House in January 1941 to provide military assistance to Britain and any other nation fighting the Nazis. Even so it was a daunting task as only 54% of the population supported aid to Britain, however, support among Democrats was far stronger than the Republicans. Republican House members fought against the bill, but it passed along a nearly party line vote of 260-165. Democrats voted 238 to 25 in favor while the Republicans cast 135 votes against the bill but only 24 in favor on February 8th. A month later the Senate voted with 49 of 62 Democrats in favor, and just 17 of 10 of 27 Republicans did the same. The act turned the United States into the Arsenal of Democracy around the world. After the United States was attacked by Japan, Lend Lease was renewed with overwhelming bipartisan support.
President Roosevelt, most Democrats and a minority of Republicans stood to support Britain and other nations, which soon expanded to China and the Soviet Union when the Nazis attacked it on June 22nd 1941. When Congress passed the Lend Lease Act to Ukraine of 2022 it was passed 417-10 in the House, one of the votes in favor being Representative Mike Johnson, who has now repeatedly blocked aid since becoming Speaker. Since the initial vote former President Trump has worked to poison the water for Republicans wishing to support Ukraine, aided by persistent Russian propaganda that is flooding right wing media and social media.
If Johnson had been speaker in 1941 the Lend Lease Act would have been defeated, and with it Hitler strengthened until Japan attacked us in December 1941, which might have been too late for our allies. Opposition to aid democracies against genocidal attacks by a dictatorship which is a declared enemy of the United States and NATO allies who stood by us when we were attacked on September 11th, 2001, is nothing short of un-American and appeasement on the order not seen since Britain and France sold out Czechoslovakia in 1938, dooming the last best chance to stop Hitler before he began his campaign of aggression and genocide in September, 1939. If Speaker Johnson continues to hold up aid to Ukraine he and his Republican conference will be responsible of the great evils to come, and write their names in the book of shameful appeasers and turncoats who put loyalty to one man above that due to their country and those that stand with us.
The behind the scene’s skullduggery in Washington, as well as an ex- President still holding sway despite three years elapsing since his defeat against Biden, is bewildering for those of us that don’t live in the states.
We get the headlines of the more sensational goings on, and then have to navigate the minefield that is the news channels and papers, in trying to make sense of events. Stations and papers are biased in such an extreme way, we have to seek out writers such as yourself, in trying to discern an understanding of the shenanigans. And just as you are getting a semblance of a handle on the political landscape, events are overtaken by yet another political crisis, or storylines concerning ex Trump aides admitting to lying to congress ( which I understood meant a 5 year stretch in the slammer, yet no one is in handcuffs ) to Trump being convicted of sexual assault charges in a civil court to another mental utterance from that New York City mayor. It’s almost impossible to keep up!!
That’s from the outside looking in, of course. We Irish have a fascination with all things American. We grew up watching your tv shows. We thought every one lived like the Brady bunch. Once I visited, my Sesame Street tinged view of the US was shattered forever.
And that was just the east coast. Once I got to Vegas I saw the real face of corporate America.
33 trillion in debt, and the menace of Trump hanging over you, and us, by proxy. Please don’t let the world down and make dam sure he does not get back. Look at what he is doing without being in office! He belongs in a cell.possibly a padded one.
Great stack.
Many thanks.👏✍️