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They’re Putin Republicans – We’re Zelensky Democrats.

Republican values now blow in the wind, depending upon what will help them stay in power. This is not patriotism. This is self-serving hypocrisy.
 
Andrea Klausner, Vice Chair, Southampton Town Democratic Committee
 More than a few Americans believe Vladimir Putin would have refrained from invading Ukraine if Donald Trump was re-elected. There’s ample evidence to suggest otherwise.
Trump successfully watered down a pro-Ukraine plank at the 2016 Republican convention. A Ted Cruz delegate wrote a strong pro-Ukrainian plank to the platform, proposing to assist Ukraine by “providing lethal defensive weapons.” That plank was changed by Trump forces at the convention.
The watering down of the Republican plank foreshadowed Trump’s impeachment for conditioning defensive weapons to Ukraine in exchange for dirt on Hunter and Joe Biden.
Trump’s one-time campaign manager, Paul Manafort, made millions of dollars employed by a Russian oligarch to manage pro-Putin candidates in Ukraine. According to a Senate Intelligence Committee report “Paul Manafort, who was Trump’s campaign chief from May to August 2016, spent nearly a decade as a consultant to Ukraine’s Party of Regions and its standard bearer, Viktor Yanukovych.”
The Party of the Regions was opposed to NATO.- Trump wanted to pull the USA from NATO. The New York Times: “Senior administration officials told The New York Times that several times over the course of 2018, Mr. Trump privately said he wanted to withdraw from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.”
More recently, CNN documented Trump lauding Putin’s incursion into Ukraine, “Here’s what Trump told conservative radio hosts Buck Sexton and Clay Travis last week: “I went in yesterday and there was a television screen, and I said, ‘This is genius.’ Putin declares a big portion of Ukraine — of Ukraine. Putin declares it as independent. Oh, that’s wonderful.”
Trump thought Putin was a genius for attacking Ukraine. Astounding that Trump is popular with such a wide swath of the American electorate.
Do Not Let Republicans Rewrite History
Now that polls show that the American people are strongly in favor of supporting Ukraine’s fight for its independence and sovereignty, Republicans would have you forget that EVERY SINGLE REPUBLICAN in the House of Representatives voted against impeaching Trump when he withheld $391 million in aid for Ukraine that Congress had already appropriated, UNLESS AND UNTIL Ukrainian President Zelensky announced an investigation into Hunter Biden. Why did Republicans want this bogus investigation? To scandalize Joe Biden and aid Trump in his bid to win the 2020 election.
Then when the Democrats brought impeachment proceedings against Trump for this gross abuse of power, EVERY SINGLE REPUBLICAN except Mitt Romney voted to acquit him.
Make no mistake about it. These actions by Republicans weakened Ukraine and encouraged Russian aggression. These actions by Republicans aligned them with a brutal strongman who despises the liberal values of Western cultures, all to appease their far-right base. These actions put our national security at risk and threaten our allies.
These actions put the world at risk for another world war, undermining all the values Americans fought for in the first two World Wars.
Republican values now blow in the wind, depending upon what will help them stay in power. This is not patriotism. This is self-serving hypocrisy.
Vote for the only party that values democracy and the rule of law. Vote for the only party that takes seriously its oath to defend the country against enemies, both foreign and domestic.
Vote for Democrats in 2022 and 2024. Our survival as a country may well depend upon it.
For more information, read historian Heather Cox Richardson’s insightful essay dated March 5, 2022.

Democrats Must Vote in Every Election