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Posted on July 16, 2022 by Greg Rushford
Foreign
affairs specialists will have seen various headlines in recent years
suggesting that some American Republicans --- Putin admirers like Donald
Trump and Tucker Carlson are usually the first national names to be
mentioned --- believe that Democrats like President Joe Biden are
greater threats to U.S. national security than Russia’s Vladimir Putin.
And
earlier this month, the Brookings Institution turned in an analysis of
recent national polling data suggesting that more Democrats than
Republicans are prepared to keep on providing military aid to help
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky defend his country from Putin’s
bloody and unprovoked invasion.
We’ll
get to that big-picture analysis. But first, a closer look at one small
community in rural Virginia provides some insights into changing
attitudes towards Russia that are playing out at grassroots levels of
American politics.
Rappahannock
County, Virginia, where I live, is nestled in the foothills of the Blue
Ridge Mountains some 70 miles west of Washington, D.C. Our county is
roughly the same size as Singapore, where the comparison ends. Singapore
has skyscrapers and 5.7 million people. Rappahannock has idyllic
country roads, lovely mountain views --- and only about 7,400 residents,
the majority of whom vote Republican.
This
is Trump country. While the former president did not carry Virginia
overall in 2020 in his losing re-election bid, he easily beat Joe Biden
here in Rappahannock, 54-44 percent. In the 2016 presidential contest
here, Trump thoroughly trounced Hillary Clinton, 59-40 percent. No
Democratic presidential contender has carried Rappahannock in this
century. Barack Obama came the closest in 2008, losing narrowly to
Republican John McCain, 51-49.
But
when it comes to foreign affairs --- notably concerning the importance
of countering Vladimir Putin’s dreams to restore the Russian empire by
force --- it appears that Rappahannock County Republicans are no longer
the party of John McCain. McCain stood against authoritarians like
Russia’s Vladimir Putin (and Donald Trump).
Our
local Republican congressman has voted against providing military aid
to help Ukraine defend itself from the Russian invaders. A Rappahannock
lawyer has been flying the Russian flag ---and the top Republican in the
county won’t comment on whether Republicans should cheer or boo that.
(Another local resident has been displaying a sign in his front yard
that says F*ck Biden. Again, our local Republican chairman --- who is
also a Baptist deacon who teaches Bible classes --- declines comment on
whether Republicans should keep their mouths shut when faced with such
indecency.)
Even
some prominent local Republicans who don’t admire Putin in the
slightest --- and consider him a dangerous threat --- have said they
believe that Joe Biden is the more immediate national security threat to
America.
Still
another current Republican candidate for Congress, a decorated Navy
hero and a graduate of Annapolis, says that he is Joe Biden’s “worst
nightmare” --- but declines comment on whether he would be Putin’s.
That’s a mouthful. Let’s digest this more carefully, one grassroots bite at a time.
Waging culture wars on the Pentagon
Rep. Bob Good, the self-styled Biblical conservative who represents Rappahannock County in Virginia’s sprawling 5thcongressional
district, was one of 57 House Republicans who voted in May to deny the
Biden administration’s request to provide an additional $40 billion in
urgent military aid to Ukraine. Good was joined by such House members
from the extreme-right wing of his party as Reps. Marjorie Taylor-Greene
(GA), Lauren Boebert (CO), Matt Gaetz (FL), and Jim Jordan (OH). On the
other side of the Hill, eleven Republican Senators from the
nationalistic wing of the party also voted to pull the plug on Zelensky,
including presidential wannabees Rand Paul (KY) and Josh Hawley (MO).
Good,
an ardent America Firster, justified his anti-Ukraine vote by blaming
“the Biden-Pelosi America-last agenda.” The Democrats, he said, “are
ignoring the many crises plaguing our country, including family
budget-busting inflation, supply chain shortages for baby formula and
other essentials, surging violent crime in our cities, and millions of
illegals trafficking across our Southern Border.”
Last
week, Good voted --- not for the first time --- against the annual
National Defense Authorization Act. NDAAs are at the core of
congressional support for America’s national security fundamentals;
without this legislation, the Defense Department could not function. The
Pentagon could not support American troops and American weapons systems
worldwide. This Fiscal 2023 NDAA bill that Good refused to support also
authorizes more military support for Ukraine.
Good’s
basic frame of reference when addressing U.S. national security
priorities seems to be rooted in his enthusiasm for fighting America’s
culture wars. He is outraged that U.S. military leaders keep insisting
upon the importance of vaccinating “our men and women in uniform.” He
also believes the top brass are intent upon brainwashing --- there is no
softer way to put it --- American troops through misguided “woke
indoctrination” on racial issues. And Good is further outraged over
Defense Department analyses that point to climate change as a serious
national security threat.
Flying foreign flags
Driving
along our country roads, one sees that Rappahannock County residents,
as in many other rural communities across the United States, are
displaying an impressive number of blue-and-yellow Ukrainian flags. Such
indications of support come from local Republican and Democrats who are
united in their opposition to Russian aggression.
But
conspicuously, along one of our charming roads where three scenic
rivers converge, one well-known Rappahannock lawyer has been flying a
Russian flag.
Lawyer
David Konick has been anything but shy about publicly supporting
Putin’s reasoning on why Russia has waged war on Ukraine. Hey, it’s a
free country! Konick enjoys a reputation as a skilled advocate, and as a
man who relishes taking no prisoners when debating with those who have
differing views. Despite such acrimony, though, Konick brings a valuable
insider’s perspective to the debate. (I enjoy reading his online
postings, as they provoke thought, which is what free speech is supposed
to do.)
Notwithstanding,
the point here is that traditionally, the leaders of the party of
Dwight Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan would have been quick to take sharp
issue with Americans who would fly the Russian flag.
Not
the Republican Party of Rappahannock County, it seems. It’s chairman,
Terry Dixon, refused repeated requests to say which side he thinks good
Republicans should be rooting for: Russia or Ukraine.
Dixon
also ignored questions asking about the national security logic driving
Rep. Good’s vote to deny that $40 billion in additional military aid to
Ukraine.
Nor
did the Baptist deacon respond to questions about the angry
Rappahannock neighbor who has been displaying "F*ck Biden" and "Let’s Go
Brandon" signs on a thoroughfare close to several local churches,
including his own. (The offensive signs, at least, do not appear to have
been displayed on Sunday mornings.)
Who’s more dangerous to America, Putin or Biden?
Even
more traditional prominent Rappahannock Republicans who clearly are no
admirers of Vladimir Putin seem to have more important concerns.
“America
has three extremely dangerous enemies: The Chinese Communist Party.
Vladimir Putin, and Joe Biden,” according to an online posting by one of
Rappahannock County’s most well-known Republican opinion leaders. But
“right now, Joe Biden is doing the most damage to America and
Americans,” she contends.
Those
were the words of Demaris Miller, whose husband Jim served as Ronald
Reagan’s director of the Office of Management and Budget. She holds a
PhD in psychology --- and clearly doesn’t think much of Joe Biden’s
psychological makeup.
Miller
and local lawyer David Konick --- the neighbor who supports the Russian
side of the security equation --- have at times exchanged sharp
differing views on Rappnet, our local online community discussion forum
that is an excellent place to try to understand local Republican
attitudes.
(I’ve
been monitoring Rappnet, with the consent of its administrator, since
shortly after the January 6, 2021, Trump riots on Capitol Hill. It can
serve up some pretty raw local opinions from the backwoods, such as
those from one conservative gentleman who dismissed Central American
children desperately trying to cross the U.S.-Mexican southern border as
“wetback slime kids.”)
Miller
told me that despite the appearance of acrimony, she and lawyer Konick
remain “very good friends” As for “the sparring between us,” she said in
one e-mail, “it is not as acrimonious as it seems to those who do not
really know us. There is no real rancor there.”
In
Miller’s view, while Putin is a “far greater danger to America,
meanwhile President Biden has “gutted our National Defense while
continuing the Obama policy of weaponizing the IRS and the Justice
Department against those not loyal to the Democrat party.”
In
another posting, Miller contended that “Joe Biden never cared about
anyone except his own power, bank account, and the Biden Crime Syndicate
that made it all possible.” Since Biden’s earliest days in the
presidency, Miller has also voiced her opinion that the “senile”
American president is controlled by “a secret cabal” in the White House.
She stands behind those sentiments.
Hung Cao to the Rescue?
A
retired U.S. Navy Captain named Hung Cao is running in the forthcoming
November mid-term elections to become Rappahannock County’s next
Republican congressman. (Thanks to redistricting aimed at eliminating
the undemocratic consequences of Bob Good’s 5th
District, where the odds have been heavily gerrymanderd in favor of
Republican candidates, Rappahannock has been moved to Virginia’s 10th
congressional district. The tenth district includes some heavily
populated suburban areas now represented by a Democrat, Jennifer Wexton,
who lives in one of those adjacent counties. It looks to be a tight
race.)
Cao
is a recently retired U.S. Navy captain who says he was motivated to
get into politics after watching President Biden’s bungled withdrawal
from Afghanistan.
Cao
certainly has a most admirable life story. His family escaped from
South Vietnam shortly before the communist takeover in April 1975. Armed
with nothing other than his native intelligence and a driven desire to
succeed in his new country, Cao went on to graduate from the U.S. Naval
Academy at Annapolis. A Navy diver, he served with distinction in
special-forces operations during a 25-year career --- earning a
chest-full of combat ribbons. His is the classic American immigrant
success story.
Healing divisions, or exploiting them?
Cao
--- who declined to be interviewed for this article --- has said that
if elected, he would work to heal America’s divisions, as his hero
Ronald Reagan once did. But the shrill tone of Cao’s campaign literature
suggests otherwise.
Basically,
Cao has been running against imaginary Democrats who don’t love their
country. “My father was on the Communist Party’s kill list, but America
welcomed him with open arms,” Cao declared in one recent fundraising
pitch. “I am forever in debt to America, and I won’t let the country I
owe my life to go down the same path as the communist horror I left
behind.”
Cao
did not respond to my written questions concerning whether he agreed
with congressional Republicans like Bob Good who have voted to pull the
plug on additional military assistance to Ukraine.
The
closest answer to that question I was able to find in an extensive
public record search was this ambiguous statement Cao recently posted on
Twitter: “Biden economic advisor says American families should continue
suffering with high gas prices to protect the liberal world order. Are
you kidding me?”
To
be sure, rising inflation is nothing to kid about, especially here in
rural America where it can cost workmen well over a hundred dollars just
to fill the tanks of their trucks. And nobody denies that the higher
energy costs that are driving that inflation are part of the price for
American support of Ukraine’s defense.
So
far, as Brookings analyst Shibley Telhami wrote on July 5, most
Americans are willing to pay that price, if that’s what it takes to draw
the line against Russian aggression against its European neighbors.
But
Telhami pointed to recent national polling that indicates there is a
growing political divide. “There are substantial differences in the
degree of preparedness to pay a price for supporting Ukraine between
Democrats and Republicans, and the gap between the two is slowly
growing, with Democrats expressing much greater willingness to pay a
price,” the Brookings scholar wrote.
“While
78 percent of Democrats are prepared to see higher energy costs, only
44 percent of Republicans say the same; while 72 percent of Democrats
are prepared to pay with higher inflation, only 39 percent of
Republicans say the same.”
Democrats who support Ukraine
For
readers who will be wondering where the Democrats stand on supporting
Ukraine, there isn’t much news to report. The incumbent Democratic
congresswoman from the 10th
district, Jennifer Wexton, has voted consistently to support military
assistance for Ukraine. Her stance does not seem to have been
controversial in her district’s Democratic circles. (Despite Hung Cao’s
fundraising appeals, Wexton does not hate America. Readers will just
have to trust me on this!)
In
the congressional district next door, Democrat Abagail Spanberger, a
respected former CIA officer, is considered to be one of her party’s
bright lights when it comes to national security.
The
political problem for congressional moderates like Wexton and
Spanberger is that the forthcoming congressional elections are hardly
shaping up as favorable to socially liberal candidates who don’t offer
red meat to angry constituents.
Back to the Political Future?
In
the olden days before America became so bitterly divided, two of
Rappahannock’s most well-known residents were James Kilpatrick and
Eugene McCarthy. Republican Kilpatrick was a very conservative newspaper
columnist. Democrat McCarthy was a very liberal U.S. senator from
Minnesota who in the 1960s challenged President Lyndon Johnson for his
(mis)conduct during the Vietnam War.
But
the two political opposites became fast friends and drinking buddies
who told war stories over whiskey. And each could write beautifully.
Those days of political civility, alas, are long gone.
Surely,
from his desk in the Kremlin, Vladimir Putin --- a man who has spared
no efforts to exploit divisions in American society as he plots to
restore Russia’s lost empire --- must be smiling.
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