I am thinking today of three people whose behavior could have a significant impact on the world in the months and possibly years to come: a nameless soldier, a shameless politician, and a soulless leader.
The first I admire; by the second, we should only feel contempt; and the third must be known forever as a war criminal.
The nameless soldier is the thousands of Ukrainians — the uniformed ones and the civilian men and women — who are defending the nascent democracy against Vladimir Putin’s brutal attempt to wipe Ukraine off the map.
Whether they are professionally trained soldiers or “babuchkas” (grandparents) using smartphones to report the coordinates of Russian tanks hidden in the forest behind their sites, their willingness to fight and die anonymously to preserve the country’s freedom and culture is the ultimate rebuttal of the Putin’s claim that Ukraine is not a “real” state, but an integral part of “the history, culture and spiritual space” of Russia itself.
We don’t know their names — I don’t know that of a single Ukrainian general, despite the success they’ve had — but their deeds have shown Putin that the country they fight for is very real, very distinguished and very willing to defend itself fiercely.
If Ukraine’s leaders choose to strike a peace deal with Russia, we must help strengthen them in negotiations, but as long as they choose to resist, we must help arm them. Because they are not just defending Ukraine, but the possibility of a whole and free Europe, in which one country cannot simply devour another. This contributes not only to a better Europe, but to a better world.
The second person I’m thinking of is Kevin McCarthy, the House Republican leader — a man who, as we now know, didn’t have the courage to be true to his own fleeting manifestation of courage. We have the reporting work of Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns of the NYT to thank, who fully appreciate how McCarthy’s behavior is an example of cowardice in four acts.
First act. Martin and Burns report that McCarthy reportedly told fellow Republicans how he felt about Donald Trump after the January 6, 2021, attack on Capitol Hill: “I’m sick of this guy” — describing the then-president’s actions as “atrocious and atrocious.” totally wrong”. Trump would likely be impeached, McCarthy said, adding that he intended to recommend to him, “You should resign.”
Second act. After the revelations were published on the 21st, McCarthy issued a statement declaring that “the New York Times reports about me are totally false and misleading.”
Third act. That night, thanks to a leaked audio published by the NYT and aired on Rachel Maddow’s MSNBC show, the entire world could hear McCarthy telling a Republican leadership conference in the House on Jan. 10 that his plan was to tell Trump that the impeachment “will pass and that my recommendation will be that you should step down”—exactly what McCarthy, hours earlier, denied having said.
Fourth act. Instead of apologizing to his constituents and the American people for lying, McCarthy calls Trump to explain himself and tell him why he should remain in his good graces. Trump magnanimously forgives the asshole for the sin of telling the truth.
Legendary University of California basketball coach John Wooden used to say that “the real test of a man’s character is what he does when no one is looking.”
Most lawmakers would like the world to believe that, at a time when everything was on the line for America, they told the truth and defended the Constitution against a president who was trying to subvert it. McCarthy privately told fellow Republicans that this was his stance.
But then he revealed his real character. When he realized that doing what was right for the country could cost him Trump’s support and his dream of becoming House Speaker, he lied about telling the truth. Worse, when his lies and bad character were exposed, many in the party supported him anyway.
This is the new “Mccartism” (the “kevinmacartism”), where a politician can say anything, even lie about telling the truth, and get away with it.
This trend poses as much of a threat to democracy as anything Putin is doing. Because if a shameless, shameless sold-out politician like McCarthy can sell his soul to enough people to become Speaker of the House, he will become second in line to the Presidency, after the Vice President.
And it’s a threat because everything McCarthy and his colleagues have done erodes the distinction between our system and the one led by the soulless man – Putin, who will not hesitate to resort to any means to keep himself in power either, whether by incarcerating and allegedly poisoning his critics or poisoning democracies with disinformation.
But Putin is not just obsessed with retaining his power and willing to violate any norm to do so. He is also obsessed with Russia’s loss of power, dignity and respect – resulting from the fall of the Soviet Union – and the need to restore them.
His foolish decision to invade Ukraine was driven by a desire to stop the expansion of NATO and the European Union closer to Russia’s borders. But he wanted to do it in a way that would show everyone how weak and divided the West is and how Ukraine is not a real country. For that, he would invade and occupy the place in a week. Classes were going to start, and Putin was going to teach the West a lesson.
But Putin’s lesson plan went terribly wrong. Instead of teaching the West – and all Ukrainians who wanted to be part of the West – a lesson and erasing the humiliations suffered by Russia, Putin has been humiliated even more.
We need to proceed carefully here. There is nothing more dangerous than a leader twice humiliated and armed with nuclear weapons.
Putin is capable of doing anything. When we look at how this war has already devastated the economies and armies of Russia and Ukraine, Putin’s place in history is already assured: he is the leader who destroyed two countries to save one person from humiliation – himself. But he will do anything to keep trying to save himself from humiliation.
So my conclusion is this: a few years ago a biography of Ariel Sharon was published in Hebrew with the title “He Doesn’t Stop at the Red Light”. It is a title also appropriate for our times. What I find so frightening about the current state of the world is the number of leaders willing to brazenly walk through red lights, in broad daylight and with a sense of absolute impunity.
In other words, willing to overcome the legal and regulatory barriers that have kept the world relatively peaceful for the last 70 years, during which we have not had wars between great powers and that have allowed more people to emerge from extreme poverty in less time than in any other period of history.
We will miss these barriers if they cease to exist. But in order to preserve them, we must help all those anonymous Ukrainians who fight for their freedom to achieve victory. And we need to ensure that Putin’s quest to find dignity by crushing the Ukrainian freedom movement fails.
But none of that will be enough if all those politicians in America who also think they can cross any red light to conquer or stay in power get their way. Who will follow our model if that happens?
I can think of no other time in my life when I felt the future of American democracy and the future of democracy globally more in doubt. And make no mistake — the two are intertwined. And make no mistake — both can still end up winners or losers.
