You peasants should be listening to your betters, doing as you’re told, and just staying out of the way
Biden Challenged by Softening Public Support for Arming Ukraine
When he made his surprise wartime trip to the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv last week, President Biden reassured that country with great confidence that “the Americans stand with you.” But the question that remains unanswered is: For how long?
For all of the president’s bravado while he was abroad, the politics of Ukraine back home in the United States are shifting noticeably and, for the White House, worryingly. Polls show public support for arming the Ukrainians softening while the two leading Republican presidential candidates are increasingly speaking out against involvement in the war.
While the bipartisan coalition in Congress favoring Ukraine has been strong in the year since Russia’s invasion, supporters of more aid fear the centrifugal forces of the emerging presidential contest and growing taxpayer fatigue with shipping tens of billions of dollars overseas may undercut the war effort before Moscow can be defeated. And some of them are frustrated that Mr. Biden has not done more to shore up support.
Well, Biden and his people haven’t really done much to explain just how Russia will be booted from Ukraine, eh? Nor what the overall plan is. Nor, how this will be different from when Russia invaded and took over Crimea when Biden was VP, and still has it. It’s just a whole bunch of “we got this, trust us.”
Overall, public support for Ukraine aid has fallen from 60 percent last May to 48 percent now, according to surveys by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. The share of Americans who think the United States has given too much to Ukraine has grown from 7 percent a year ago to 26 percent last month, according to the Pew Research Center.
And even supporters make clear their commitment is not without bounds. While 50 percent of those surveyed by Fox News said American support should continue for “as long as it takes to win,” 46 percent said the time frame should be limited.
Support is nosediving among Republicans and Independents, but, among Democrats, who don’t do much else but use hashtags and Ukraine flags on social media, it’s still somewhat strong.
Aides said Mr. Biden’s speeches in Kyiv and Warsaw were intended for an American audience as well as international ones. But the president has shrugged off concerns about ebbing public support for the Ukraine supply effort, suggesting it is relegated mainly to what he calls MAGA Republicans, after former President Donald J. Trump’s Make America Great Again slogan.
When David Muir of ABC News noted in an interview last week that many Americans were asking how long they could keep spending on Ukraine, the president quarreled with the premise. “I’m not sure how many are asking that,” Mr. Biden said. “I know the MAGA crowd is. The right-wing Republicans are talking about, we can’t do this. We find ourselves in a situation where the cost of walking away could be considerably higher than the cost of helping Ukraine maintain its independence.”
What would be the cost? David failed to ask for that detail. If Russia controlled Ukraine, what would happen? And, why do we care? Leaders in other nations aren’t explaining, either.
“The problem is that the longer the war continues, the greater the risk that U.S. resolve will wane, no matter how much effort the president puts into convincing Americans to stay the course,” she said. “That’s why it’s so critical that the United States lean in now and help Ukraine end things militarily.”
Actually, the longer it goes on and the more the Biden admin and other governments give Ukraine in the way of advanced weapons the closer it gets to WWIII. And, considering Biden’s horrendous Afghanistan withdrawal, how much can we trust this administration?
Read: Biden Admin Upset Over You Pesky Citizens Losing Faith In Arming Ukraine »