US Midterms: Two Things Need to Happen

Lately a lot of people have been asking me if I think if today’s midterm elections might make a difference in our foreign policy, particularly in Ukraine. Well, maybe. But two things need to happen.

The problem is that there is no correlation between public support and national policy. As I pointed out in a previous post, The war in Ukraine ranks rock bottom in issues that concern American voters. That alone isn’t enough to change anything. After all, the Afghan war dragged on for many years long after most Americans had any interest in it, or even approved of the idea. Biden’s disastrous withdrawal was widely ridiculed and condemned by his critics, but that was more than a year ago, and the masses have the memory span of a goldfish.

Republicans have been giving, at best, mixed signals about whether or not they are going to push for any changes in the Democrats’ money laundering scheme in Ukraine. Only a few, like Marjorie Greene, have openly expressed opposition to more funding for Kiev. It’s entirely possible blank checks to the comedian will continue even with Republican majorities in the house and the senate. Take Lindsey “war crimes” Graham for example. There’s no blood letting that he doesn’t enthusiastically support.

But… Republicans, with the exception of a few neo-cons, don’t have the same ideological fervor for an anti-Russia crusade like the Democrats do. Republicans may be afraid to be seen as pro-Russia, but I find it unlikely they’ll gleefully throw our own economy under the bus to hurt Putin’s feelings.

That’s why I say a significant change would require two things to happen:

1. A Republican majority in both the house and the senate
2. The recession economy gets even worse than it already is.

If both of these things happen, the political establishment may grow weary of Zelensky’s endless demands for money and insist on real negotiations. With their army suffering enormous attrition and their economy in shambles, Ukraine probably wouldn’t last a month without their sponsors. So maybe that means we’ll theoretically see the war finally end this summer, and I don’t want to be too optimistic because this could easily turn into a multi-year war anyway.

Thanks for reading and special thanks for the two most recent donations from Longtrail and Robert Pyle. I started my Buy Me a Coffee campaign about two months ago with the goal of $550 to pay for Reading Junkie’s next billing cycle. I’m already at $410, which is 75% of the goal, and far more than I ever would have expected so quickly.

School has been killing me lately, so I haven’t been able to write quite as often as I would like to, but I have more photos and drafts incoming, so expect more in the upcoming days. And here’s a hi from Spazz in Russia!

Featured Image Credit: mohamed_hassan on Pixabay

Ian Kummer

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