Majority of Americans Continue to Back Ukraine and NATO - Horowitz

Majority of Americans Continue to Back Ukraine and NATO - Horowitz

Sounding more and more like the original American Firsters who minimized the threat of Nazi Germany in the late 1930s, offering appeasement and isolationism as the answer, Donald Trump and his loud MAGA allies in Congress are receiving a disproportionate share of the media coverage of how Americans’ feel about our efforts in Ukraine. This creates a distorted view of public opinion on the topic. In fact, a substantial majority of Americans continue to support the United States providing economic and military assistance to Ukraine, as well as our role in NATO.

More specifically, “6 in 10 Americans favor providing both economic assistance to Ukraine and sending additional arms and military supplies to the Ukrainian government (58% each),” according to a recent Chicago Council on Global Affairs / Ipsos survey. Similarly, 6-in-10 Americans “say that the US security relationship with Ukraine does more to strengthen US national security than it does to weaken it.”

 

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While overall backing for aid to Ukraine remains solid, it is the case that support among Republicans has dropped.  Today, only 40% of Republicans support military aid to Ukraine, as compared to 75% of Democrats and 54% of Independents.  This is the segment of the electorate that is most influenced by the former president and receives by far the most exposure to the steady chorus of Ukraine skeptics and sometimes openly pro-Putin takes that have become a staple of right-wing media coverage and social media circles.

 

On the related issue of American involvement in NATO, overall support remains strong as well. Nearly 7-in-10 Americans (67%) either want to increase or keep our current commitment to NATO the same, as compared to nearly 3-in-10 (27%) who would prefer that the US reduce its commitment or withdraw entirely, according to a new Gallup Poll.  For this topic, the substantial majority support for continued American involvement extends to Republicans.

 

These recent polls do not reflect the impact on American public opinion of the death two weeks ago or so of the courageous leader of the Russian opposition, Alexei Navalny in a Siberian prison camp where he was imprisoned on false charges under harsh, inhumane conditions, as well as the crackdown and even arrests of people attempting to publicly mourn him. This stark reminder of the brutality of Vladimir Putin and the fact that he rules Russia by the naked use of force and will do the same in Ukraine and any other country he attempts to conquer will likely at the margins increase backing here at home for rearming the brave Ukrainians, who are running out of ammunition, and for NATO.

 

It is long past time for Speaker Johnson to listen to the majority of Americans who understand what is at stake in Ukraine. This means he must stop catering to Donald Trump and his MAGA House allies, who seem determined to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory and are indifferent at best to the fate of Ukraine and the value of deterring Putin’s ambition to reassemble the old Russian empire.  

 

Every day that goes by without the military aid package passing has a high real-world price in Ukrainian lives and Russian territorial gain That is what makes the effort Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) and others are making to secure the signatures of a majority of the House members on a discharge petition--bypassing the speaker and bringing aid for Ukraine directly to the floor--so vital. There is little doubt that a floor vote on Ukraine aid would pass by a substantial majority as it did in the US Senate.

 

The House of Representatives can not only do what’s right; it can do what the American people want. Let's not waste any more time.