Ukraine Has Shredded the GOP’s Message
Staging culture-war battles doesn’t work when all eyes are on a real war.
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On Wednesday night eastern time last week, Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine. On Thursday morning, the Conservative Political Action Conference kicked off its annual gathering in Orlando, Florida. Against the backdrop of a real war, the culture warriors at CPAC (which I spent hours watching on the CPAC website) looked even pettier than usual. Republicans were serving up their usual list of grievances while brave Ukrainians were taking up arms to defend their country from Vladimir Putin. Donald Trump, a keynote speaker, is, of course, an unabashed Putin fanboy. Russian troops were preparing to close in on Kyiv as Texas Senator Ted Cruz was rolling into Orlando to ask the CPAC audience to subscribe to his podcast. More than anything, the culture warriors wanted to promote their own brands.
It certainly says something that the competing conference—the America First Political Action Conference, held at the Orlando World Center Marriott—was for white nationalists. Then there was the CPAC audience’s bewilderment over how to respond to Putin attacking Ukraine. The official straw poll of 2,574 attendees revealed that 62 percent believe that “Joe Biden’s incompetence” is the “greatest threat to America’s safety and national security,” while 3 percent view Russia as a threat. Could this have anything to do with Trump and Putin complimenting each other for years?
The more mainstream—but still terrible!—Republicans who gave speeches resorted to tired culture-war-mongering. Given an unenviable early-Friday-morning slot, perpetually diminished Florida Senator Marco Rubio rotely complained about “Marxism.” So did Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who told the crowd, “Wokeism is a form of cultural Marxism.” Ted Cruz, in a conversation with former Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage, said, “Putin is less dangerous than China. Putin is basically a KGB thug … In the long term, I believe China is our single greatest geopolitical adversary for the next century.” Maybe so, but why downplay Putin’s threat at this moment in history?
European countries have opened their doors to Ukrainian refugees, but CPAC speakers railed against immigrants. Lukasz Kmita, the head of Poland’s Malopolska region, reportedly said that there would be “no limits” on the number of refugees they would take. DeSantis told the crowd, “If Biden is dumping illegal aliens into Florida from the southern border, I’m rerouting them to Delaware.” Dehumanizing immigrants was a winning message for the GOP in the Trump years. Does it still play when American television is filled with images of Europeans welcoming Ukrainians?
Trumpism is ultimately a philosophy of selfishness, and it clearly still has a grip on Republicans. On CPAC’s opening day, Turning Point USA’s Charlie Kirk told the audience that “the U.S. southern border matters a lot more than the Ukrainian border. I’m more worried about how the cartels are deliberately trying to infiltrate our country than a dispute 5,000 miles away in cities we can’t pronounce, in places that most Americans can’t find on a map.” Another young Trumpist, Representative Matt Gaetz (who last year was revealed to be the subject of a federal investigation), mused about “foot[ing] the bill for Ukraine,” asking the group, “Why should Americans have to pay the costs for freedom elsewhere when our own leaders won’t stand up for our freedom here?" This Charles Lindbergh–esque, America-first messaging seems like it won’t age well.
Putin admirer and Brexiteer Nigel Farage gave an especially awkward, fumbling speech, in which he said, “Vladimir Putin is a nationalist Russian. He wants to get back—at least I thought he wanted to get back—the Russian-speaking areas [of Ukraine] into his country. Those provinces in Ukraine, well, they are Russian-speaking … I always thought we were dealing with someone very logical, but now I don’t think he is.” If he didn’t feel comfortable trashing Putin, he certainly had no compunction going in on Joe Biden, saying, “I’m not allowed to say ‘Let’s go Brandon’ because it’s rude,” and then, inevitably, “So let’s go Brandon!” He also tried to get the room to boo Canadian Prime minister Justin Trudeau, before going on to blame Biden for Putin invading Ukraine.
Trump gave his usual interminable CPAC speech in which he hinted at what we all know—he’s running. He criticized NATO (again) and said, “Our most dangerous people are people from within … because they make us weak.” And, of course, he couldn’t quite bring himself to criticize Putin. “The problem is not that Putin is smart, which, of course, he’s smart. But the real problem is that our leaders are dumb … they so far allowed him to get away with this travesty and assault on humanity.” I guess it’s good he called Putin’s invasion of Ukraine a “travesty,” but that’s pretty tempered language from the guy who for years has been calling for Hillary Clinton to be jailed for email hygiene.
Trump was also sure to mention that he “gave Ukraine the javelins that everyone is now talking about and millions of dollars of other military equipment. The Obama administration gave them blankets.” He did, however, leave out that he was impeached (the first time) partially on the evidence of a contentious phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Trump also lied about the 2020 election—his signature move.
Closing out the conference was another Donald Trump: Jr. His appearances are getting more and more unhinged. At one point he mused, “Crack’s not really my thing, but if it was, it would be fine if I was on that [Democratic] side.” Trump Jr. hates Hunter Biden as much as his dad loves denying that he lost the 2020 election.
I’ve watched many a CPAC, and every year the event is filled with grotesque dog whistles and moronic talking points. Every year I’m impressed and dismayed by the cohesion of the Republican messaging. But this year, the Trumpists are all too obviously on the wrong side of things—not just history, but real-time events. After years of defending Putin and even taking money from his oligarchs, it’s fascinatingly odd, if unsurprising, to watch them scramble to land on a message about Ukraine. These culture warriors are unconcerned with the suffering of those trapped in the ravages of a real war. They may think being banned from Twitter is the same as being bombed and driven from your home. I’m not sure anyone else agrees.