Senator Todd Young, the Indiana Republican, says that he cannot support the presidential nominee of his party. (Republicans are poised to nominate Donald Trump a third time.) I’ll get back to Young in a moment. First, I should discuss another Republican senator, Mitch McConnell.
Yesterday, I published a piece about him: “What McConnell Has Meant.” It included a variety of reflections, some of them personal. I said that I appreciated and admired McConnell — not least for his staunch support of Ukraine and his opposition to Putin and his barbarism.
I received a fair amount of mail on this. Before quoting it, I should quote from my piece:
Yesterday, McConnell endorsed Trump for president — as he was expected to do. He is a party man, to a large degree (although we have seen that he is perfectly willing to swim against the currents of his party).
Trump’s personal insults of McConnell and his wife aside — McConnell knows that Trump is sympathetic to Putin and hostile to Ukraine. He knows that Trump is soft on dictators generally. He knows that another Trump term is a threat to NATO and Western security. He knows that Trump has no respect for our democracy, our Constitution, the rule of law — he has seen it, up close. He knows that Trump lies incessantly. But he endorsed Trump anyway.
“Sometimes party loyalty asks too much,” said JFK. I agree. But McConnell’s choices are his. Mine are mine. Yours are yours. As I said earlier on, I have my criticisms of McConnell as he would of me.
But yes, I appreciate him, and admire him. And I know that the likes of him are going, one by one. The likes of Senators J.D. Vance and Josh Hawley are rising . . .
Now, to the mail. It falls into two categories. Some people say essentially the following:
You’ve got to stick to the party. You’ve got to reform from within. There are only two parties in this country — two major ones. That’s the way it is in America. You have to support your party, because even if Trump & Co. are in the saddle now, the pre-Trump remnant needs company. Plus, anything is better than the Democrats. Even Trump and Trumpism.
(The above does not particularly apply to me. I left the Republican Party in May 2016 and wrote about it in the next issue of National Review: here. I am an independent.)
All right, the other category of mail — in which people say essentially this:
You are trapped in a contradiction. You say that you appreciate and admire Senator McConnell — particularly on the basis of his support of Ukraine. But McConnell has endorsed Trump. And this negates his support of Ukraine. A vote for Trump is a vote against Ukraine. Look at how Republicans in Congress are behaving! They have blocked aid to Ukraine. And Trump is not even president again yet!
I understand. I might also say: Politics can be as messy as life. McConnell, Reaganite though he is, may think that he has obligations — political ones, professional ones — that the rest of us do not. I don’t know.
Let me now return to Senator Young. He says that he cannot support Trump because Trump cannot support Ukraine or oppose Putin. For a news story on this, go here.
Voting on the “national-security supplemental” last month, Young said,
This legislation provides vital security assistance to Israel, Ukraine, and Taiwan. We cannot abandon these allies and partners as they face existential threats. . . .
. . . Abandoning our allies and partners will empower and embolden authoritarian powers such as China and Russia. Leadership comes with a price, but it also comes with rewards.
The legislation passed the Senate handily, though most Republicans voted against it. But it has been blocked by Republicans in the House.
We all have things that are important to us — and less important. A hierarchy of importances, so to speak. And no one person can choose for another. It’s a matter of conscience, largely. Evidently, the Ukraine–Russia issue is so important to Todd Young, he can’t support Trump.
I have often had occasion to cite a Lyle Lovett lyric — in personal life, political life, and so on: “It may be no big deal to you, but it’s a very big deal to me.”