both as a matter of sort of republican functionality, and also in terms of the calls of western-style liberal democracy around the world. do you think the fact that speaker johnson is willing to bring up this ukraine aid funding to the chagrin of the far right members of his caucus is a signal that house republicans are finally beginning to realize that they have been employed as useful idiots for the kremlin? no. i would not go that far. it seems as if speaker johnson has made an individual decision that it would be a disaster for the united states to abandon ukraine, and i think he knows that this would be his legacy, right? his political obituary would lead with his abandonment of ukraine, because he has a coalition of democrats and republicans that support ukraine. the senate is already voted 70- 30, with a big bipartisan majority for ukraine. so he knows it would be him and him only that would get the blame for handing ukraine to vladimir putin. so i don t think this suggests
conservatives it used to enrage them. they would say this president is not being strong and decisive enough. talking about president obama. he s leading from behind. this seems like leading from behind. where is the outrage? what happened with that criticism? you know, on this if you broaden this out, there is a signal area where the united states under donald trump has really been not just i think leading from behind is an exaggeration. i think the better way to put it might be abdicating leadership, has been awol. if you look at the climate for journalists, if you look at the climate for political opposition, if you look at the climate for all those hallmarks of liberal democracy around the world, they re in bad shape around the world. and one reason is that the country that was usually at the forefront of protecting them and talking about them, calling governments out is awol. under the trump administration, you really have had a develop relaxeded of attitude toward whether it