Now that Vladimir Putin has launched a Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Trumpist isolationist wing of the Republican Party looks even more ridiculous. The always eloquent J.D. Vance, the author from Ohio who wrote “Hillbilly Elegy” and is now running for U.S. Senate, said, “I don’t really care what happens to Ukraine one way or the other.”
Vance isn’t the only Republican who seems to be okay with allowing Russia to violate international laws and roll an invasion force into a neighboring country. The jury is still out whether this is because they’re trying to show their fealty to Trump or because they’re just following their cult leader’s pro-Putin lead.
There are so many huge issues tangled up in the invasion of Ukraine, and of course not all of them are related to Republican politics. It is undeniable, however, that the green light Trump gave Putin while president, and the chaos sown by the insurrectionary wing of the Republican Party, played into the Russian dictator’s decision to invade Ukraine.
I wonder how long guys like Vance will think that what happens in Ukraine really doesn’t matter?