Last Saturday, a group of U.S. senators sat down with Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine, in Munich. They were all attending the security conference there. Senator J. D. Vance (R., Ohio) was in attendance too. But he declined to meet with Zelensky.
Marc Thiessen, the columnist and analyst, commented, “What a coward. Could not sit down and look Zelensky in the eye.”
I think all can agree that Vance and Zelensky are as different as night and day. Admirers of Vance can agree; admirers of Zelensky can agree. Those two men come from different planets. They are barely members of the same species.
(Of course they belong to the same species. Of course they come from the same planet. But I am emphasizing a point.)
Campaigning in 2022, Vance said to Steve Bannon, “I gotta be honest with you, I don’t really care what happens to Ukraine one way or another.” That is indeed honesty (not too common in a politician).
Zelensky, by contrast, cares very much what happens to Ukraine. He is leading a country that is trying to resist subjugation by Putin’s Russia. Ukrainians know very well what happens under Russian subjugation. They have lived it before; many are living it now, especially in the east of the country.
All over Ukraine, Putin’s forces have committed mass murder, mass rape, mass torture, and so on.
When Putin launched his full-scale invasion two years ago, Zelensky refused to leave the country. Prime Minister Johnson invited him to come to London, to set up a government-in-exile. London had been the site of many governments-in-exile as Hitler and Stalin were conquering Europe.
But Zelensky said no. He knew the danger. He knew that Putin’s forces, if they captured Kyiv, would execute him. Still, he said no. He made a video on the street, surrounded by close advisers and cabinet members. He told fellow Ukrainians, “We are here, our soldiers are here, the citizens of our country are here.” This was crucial.
Ukrainians are fighting for their very right to exist — their freedom, their independence, their nationhood. Oddly, many self-described nationalists in the West are either hostile to this or indifferent to it.
In any case, J. D. Vance won the election in 2022. He replaced Rob Portman, who was retiring from the Senate. Portman had been the Republican co-chairman of the Senate Ukraine Caucus. Nothing more neatly illustrates the trajectory of the Republican Party than the replacement of Rob Portman by J. D. Vance.
Talking on Fox News, Vance called Ukraine “the most corrupt country on the face of the planet.” To this, there are many things to say. One of them is: Has Vance ever heard of Russia, the country that is trying to conquer Ukraine? Does he know anything about Putin’s dictatorial kleptocracy? U.S. senators have access to ample information.
Talking once more to Steve Bannon, Vance said, “There are people who would cut Social Security, throw our grandparents into poverty. Why? So that one of Zelensky’s ministers can buy a bigger yacht?”
A report from the BBC is instructive: “How pro-Russian ‘yacht’ propaganda influenced US debate over Ukraine aid.”
In the past two years, the populist Right in our country has succeeded in demonizing Volodymyr Zelensky. He’s a warmonger, he’s a crook, maybe a Nazi. Often, our populists speak not of aiding Ukraine — an entire people, struggling to survive — but of aiding Zelensky personally. Watch Vance here:
Demagoguery on stilts.
Another trick of this crowd is to link Ukraine to the U.S. border — not to any other of our hundreds of concerns, but to the border. So J. D. Vance said, “In the midst of a historic border crisis, Zelensky will come to Washington and demand that the Congress care more about his border than our own.”
Again, demagoguery — both disgusting and typical.
Ron DeSantis is a player of the game. “I wish the D.C. elites cared as much about our border as they care about the Ukraine–Russia border.” How about the Heritage Foundation, once a Reaganite bastion, now something completely different? Look at them:
Consider, once more, the language of Vance: “Zelensky will come to Washington and demand that the Congress care more about his border than our own.” Zelensky has never made any such demand — and would not. Furthermore, does Zelensky care about “his border”? He cares about the survival of his country.
Did we accuse the Czechoslovakians of caring merely about their border? The Poles? The French? The British, during the Blitz? (“Oh, boo hoo, their border!”) Perhaps some did.
There is an old tradition in America: We fought in World War I for the benefit of J. P. Morgan and the “merchants of death.” We fought in World War II for the same reason — for the sake of the arms manufacturers. We fought in Vietnam for the enrichment of Dow Chemical (I myself grew up hearing about this).
On Fox News, Senator Vance said, “The profit motives of the defense contractors are motivating our posture in Ukraine.” He further said, “We need to stop supporting the Ukraine war effort.”
Think of those words. The Ukrainians are trying to repel an invasion by a monstrous neighbor. They are fighting and dying to hang on to their country — to keep from being dragged back into an evil empire. They are fighting for their very right to exist.
“We need to stop supporting the Ukraine war effort”? What a repulsive way to put it.
No wonder J. D. Vance could not sit down with Volodymyr Zelensky. Yes, they are utterly different men. Utterly different in character, understanding — everything. Each man has his fans. It has ever been thus, in history: the Vances and the Zelenskys (few as the Zelenskys are). In every generation, in every conflict.
I have written an article about Vance — I am singling him out (with the Munich conference as a peg). But frankly, it could be about many, many politicians and political personalities in America.
J. D. Vance is a darling of the GOP — and of CPAC, Fox, Heritage, Turning Point. The whole show. He may be vice president one day — or president. I hope he will exhibit a fraction of the mettle of Volodymyr Zelensky.