The Banality of Republican Foreign Policy Immorality

Hannah Arendt wrote:

“Evil comes from a failure to think. It defies thought for as soon as thought tries to engage itself with evil and examine the premises and principles from which it originates, it is frustrated because it finds nothing there. That is the banality of evil.”

As a former long-time Republican (34 years) I have come to expect the worst from my former party. I left it when I came to see the lies of the Bush administration during my combat tour in Iraq, followed by the incredibly absurd nomination of Sarah Palin as the Vice Presidential nominee in 2008. This was followed by the horrible race and religious based attacks of supposedly Christian conservatives on President Obama, including prayers or his death. Then came the clown car of the Tea Party and the “Freedom Caucus”, and finally the GOP’s complete surrender to Donald Trump in 2016, where they became the political wing of the Trump Cult.

Even so, what has transpired over the past few weeks show me that the Grand Old Party has devolved into a rabid and malignant force that threatens our national security and the freedom of the world. It has followed Donald Trump into the abyss of inhumanity and moral depravity. Sadly, many of these people claim their alleged “Christian” faith and supposedly “conservative” principles as the raison d’etre for their abandonment of Ukraine to Russian genocide, and their sense blame of President Biden for the barbaric Hamas terrorist attack on Israel. The banality of their actions is what Hannah Arendt called, “the banality of evil.”

However, the fullness of the MAGA depravity was not fully shown when newly minted Speaker of the House, “MAGA Mike” Johnson pushed through a funding bill to support Israel only, despite the fact that it won’t pass the Senate, and that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told him beforehand that it wouldn’t pass. Johnson and most of MAGA cannot understand that all of our current security threats are connected, and that what is happening in Israel can be tied to Iran and it’s close allies Russia, China, and North Korea. The bill left out funding for Ukraine and Taiwan, and additionally, requires an equal cut from the 14 Billion dollars provided to Israel from the Internal Revenue Service. The later would cripple it and add an additional 90 Billion dollars to the deficit. From an economic perspective it is mindless, especially for a party that in word has always preached fiscal responsibility. However, there is reason a reason why MAGA Mike did this, it is simple. Johnson and the GOP House would rather protect rich tax cheats than actually be responsible and fund the government.

But wait, there’s more. The House still has not passes the Defense Appropriations Bill after it was sent back from the Senate and has kept a mountain of poison pill culture war amendments in it that have no relation to national defense. Whether these poison pill amendments remain is to be decided in conference with the Senate, but when Marjorie Taylor Greene is a member of the House conference team you can bet your sweet bippy that she will fight for them to the death.

Of course there is the nearly nine-months long blockade of senior military officer promotions by “coach” Tommy Tuberville, the junior Senator from Alabama who is from Arkansas and lives in Florida. There are nearly 400 officers nominated for important national security positions, to include the commander of the 5th Fleet who is also the Deputy Commander for Central Command that are blocked because Tuberville opposes the military for paying travel and lodging expenses for service members who require care during problem pregnancies that might require an abortion, who cannot obtain that care where they are stationed. Of course none of the officers were involved with the decision, and the proper action would have been for Tuberville to sue the Defense Department to change the rule, but he will not take that route, and instead jeopardizes nation security at a time when American forces are being deployed in the Middle East and Russia, China, and Iran are all threatening American and Allied national security. This was evidenced by the fact that Marine Corps Commandant, General Eric Smith, whose promotion had been held up for over six months by Tuberville, had a heart attack with no confirmed Assistant Commandant.

The GOP long claimed to be the party of national security and the military. However, since the Presidency of Barack Obama, the party has become more and more isolationist, supportive of long time enemies of the United States, and less supportive or understanding of the people who make up the military. To think that people who answered a poll about Trump and Biden judged Trump as more apt to defend our national security than Biden when Trump actively worked against it before, during, and after his presidency makes me wonder about what the hell these people are thinking. This truly is a bizzaro world.

All that being said the MAGA GOP has abandoned its claim to be committed to be committed to national our security or the interests of democracy and freedom around the world. If they, God forbid, ever take power in this country it will be the end of the liberties that our founders held dear, and which people around the world saw as a beacon worth emulating. These people support fascism and the religious based autocracy that our forefathers left behind. MAGA Mike is a prime example. All he does is because he lacks character.

When I see MAGA Mike in action my mind goes to the words of Joseph Heller in his classic novel Catch 22.

“The chaplain had mastered, in a moment of divine intuition, the handy technique of protective rationalization, and he was exhilarated by his discovery. It was miraculous. It was almost no trick at all, he saw, to turn vice into virtue and slander into truth, impotence into abstinence, arrogance into humility, plunder into philanthropy, thievery into honor, blasphemy into wisdom, brutality into patriotism, and sadism into justice. Anybody could do it; it required no brains at all. It merely required no character.” 

Sadly, Johnson is not alone. Almost every elected Republican today has done the same. If they and their benefactor Donald Trump take complete power in 2024 you can kiss or democracy, republic, constitutional liberties, and national security goodbye.

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