On Sunday, a Bay State congressman joined a colleague from conservative Wyoming to call for unity in the face of an escalating conflict in Ukraine, which they say represents an existential threat to democracy globally.
“The United States — and Congress — must continue to deliver a strong and unequivocal answer, because democracy everywhere is fragile. Strains of authoritarianism here at home make that painfully clear,” U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., and Rep. Jake Auchincloss, D-Mass., said in a joint Washington Post Op-Ed published Sunday.
“In defending Ukraine’s democracy, we stand up for our own. In combating tyranny overseas, we strengthen our freedom at home,” they said.
The op-ed skirts the issue of whether the U.S. should engage directly with military intervention, but does say that, “to balance the disparity in firepower, the U.S. government must guarantee weapons, training and intelligence support that Ukrainian forces can use.”
The representatives acknowledge their wide division on most policy issues, but stress that the current circumstances require collaboration.
“We have firsthand experience with the partisan clashes in Washington. The two of us have frequently been on opposite sides this term,” they said.
“But on the issue of Ukraine, there is no daylight between us. And there should be no partisan divide among members in Congress. It must be the policy of the United States that the strategic objective in Ukraine is victory,” they wrote.
A spokesperson for Auchincloss said the congressmen’s position on extremely partisan issues, like abortion, is not being set aside for the war in Ukraine.
“This is saying that despite those differences, we should still be able to show we can defend and uphold democracy at home and abroad,” the spokesperson said.
Auchincloss appeared on Fox News Saturday to defend Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion nationally, which a leaked Supreme Court draft indicated may soon be overturned.
Cheney’s campaign page makes clear her support for overturning Roe. Cheney, the scion of a powerful conservative family, has herself become something of a pariah in the Republican party for her outspoken criticism of former President Donald Trump.
The war in Ukraine began eight years ago when Russia annexed Crimea and has continued in two separatists regions since. The conflict escalated sharply in February when Russia invaded the rest of the country on three fronts. More than 5 million civilians have been displaced since and thousands killed or injured.
According to the op-ed, this conflict, if we continue stand apart domestically, could foreshadow others internationally.
“The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) wants to see the United States and NATO fail in this effort. The CCP opposes the postwar order and seeks to replace it with a global surveillance state that would extinguish freedom. Hong Kong has been the most notable casualty of the CCP’s targeting of the postwar order. Many experts predict Taiwan is their next target,” Auchincloss and Cheney wrote.
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