[This pieces is running as an op/ed in newspapers in the very red congressional district (VA-06) in which I was the Democratic nominee for Congress in 2012.)
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There was so much good news the week of April 14 that it almost seemed like the end of one of those Hollywood movies where all sorts of problems get resolved at once.
Aid to Ukraine:
Let’s start with how the House of Representatives finally overcame the dangerous blockade of aid to Ukraine. The Speaker of the House – Michael Johnson – defied “the Putin wing of the Republican Party” and allowed the House to pass the aid package that American national security urgently requires.
Johnson appealed to the judgment of “history,” and defied the Republican extremists who have dominated the House, which also means defying Donald Trump, which means also defying the threat of being ejected from his Speakership. Persuaded by his briefings that aiding Ukraine serves vital American interests, Johnson took the patriotic position that his own hold on power mattered much less than doing what America requires.
A huge bipartisan majority passed that aid to Ukraine, which has been giving the United States and NATO more bang for the buck in terms of American security that can be had anywhere else (by making the major enemy of the U.S. -- Putin’s Russia – fail in its aggression).
(And that same bipartisan majority will likely rescue Johnson if the likes of Marjorie Taylor Green follows through in her threat to punish him.)
Acting in a bipartisan way has long been dangerous for Republican leaders, but Johnson has done what every recent Republican Speaker of the House has been forced to do to get anything important done – like keeping the government running, like raising the debt limit to avoid default: working with the people’s representatives from the other party.
Good news indeed—both that Ukraine will again have the weapons they need to defend their nation, and that sanity and decency finally prevailed over the small group of Republican extremists who want the Russian dictator and war criminal to succeed.
Avoiding a Regional War in the Middle East:
Good news also from the Middle East, where the week began with an Iranian attack on Israel that threatened to ignite the whole region in the level of regional war that American diplomacy has continually been striving to prevent since Iranian-backed Hamas began the cycle of violence with its assault on Israeli citizens.
Israel had chosen escalation by attacking the Iranian embassy in Syria, from which it can reasonably be concluded that they were inviting such that (likely disastrous) wider war with Iran.
And it is reported that, indeed, the most extreme elements of Israel’s ruling coalition reportedly wanted Israel to launch a massive air attack on major targets within Iran.
But Israel decided instead on a path that seems to have brought this crisis to a quiet conclusion: they made a merely symbolic strike on Iran itself. (It demonstrated that Israel can hit Iranian targets at will, in sharp contrast with how Israel and its allies fended off almost all the Iranian drones and missiles.)
And then the Iranians cooperated in stepping back from the brink, as they acted almost like nothing had happened.
“No all-out regional war” is big, but there’s additional good news, as was well-explained by the Washington Post’s David Ignatius: this confrontation with Iran has helped Israel recover – somewhat -- from the isolation (and disgrace) Israel brought upon itself by resulting from its ugly response to the Hamas attack.
Iran is the bigger problem in world politics -- and a threat to Arab powers – so Iran’s attack enabled Israel to regain standing with both Western allies and important neighboring Arab nations.
Israel’s response to the Hamas attack had utterly derailed Israel’s progress toward peaceful integrations into the Arab region—derailed especially the incipient breakthrough of normalization with Saudi Arabia.
But the attack by Iran – the bigger enemy they have in common – reconnected Israel with both Western allies and important Arab neighbors, who aided Israel in downing the Iranian drones and missiles.
Good news, for those who care about Israel (unless the Israelis squander this gain by resuming its ugly and blundering approach in Gaza, refreshing the reputational damage Israel has inflicted upon itself).
A Trial that Reveals Damaging Truths:
Some have wondered if Trump’s Manhattan trial might fortify him politically. But the early days suggest that -- even if these are not the most profound crimes for which he has been indicted -- this trial will damage Trump in the eyes of the nation.
Some of that damage will doubtless be from the picture it will present Trump as a habitual cheater – cheating not only on his wife, but also conspiring to cheat the American people of the information to which they were entitled in the 2016 presidential election.
But more important may be Trump’s conduct in court—where, in the first week, he showed himself incapable of coping with a situation he does not control. Already, the trial looks likely to erode the image Trump has cultivated of being powerful and commanding. Already the trial looks likely to show how seriously limited – weak, even defective – a person Donald Trump is.
Which – given all that Trump has told the nation about his dictatorial intentions if this fall’s election gives him again the powers of the presidency -- is good news for those who care about the survival of American democracy.