Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE), who represents Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District, has not always been popular with the right-most flank of his party. He is one of the most centrist members of the House caucus, and he has been somewhat critical of former President Donald Trump. It is something of a surprise, then, that conservative radio firebrand Mark Levin endorsed Bacon against his opponent last week.
Levin reasoned that Bacon would be better on national security policy than his opponent. “I am not into these radical isolationists and libertarians. I am a constitutional conservative,” he said. “I don’t side with terrorists against Israel. I don’t side with Russia against Ukraine. I don’t side with communist China against anybody, period.” Levin believes Bacon’s populist challenger simply will not put America’s national security interests first.
Conservative leaders could do with a great deal more of Levin’s, and Bacon’s, spirit. For too long, they have cowered before a loud minority of isolationists out of the delusion that they represent the will of “the base.” They do not. Letting out-of-touch extremists exercise such power over GOP policy priorities is a mistake.
Republicans used to be the party of national security. During the Cold War, conservatives such as Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan led the charge against liberal appeasement policies toward the Soviet Union. During the war on terrorism, it was Republicans who were most willing to take the fight to the radical Islamists who attacked the United States and its allies. Today, it should be Republicans offering cleareyed responses to the very real threats that face the country.
Sadly, a vocal group of Republicans in Washington, D.C., has been abandoning this legacy. Despite the concessions House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) was able to get from Democrats to improve recent national security supplemental spending bills, 112 Republicans voted against sending additional aid to Ukraine. Smaller numbers of hard-line Republicans also voted against aid to Taiwan and even Israel. It was a shocking break with tradition.
Polling shows, though, that most Republican voters still support a strong foreign policy. Surveys conducted by the American Action Network earlier this year demonstrate that GOP primary voters understand that Russian President Vladimir Putin is an enemy of the U.S. and that supporting Ukraine is the best way to combat his neo-imperial ambitions. A vast majority of voters say they back Israel’s war against Hamas terrorists. And even higher numbers polled say they have negative views of the Chinese Communist Party — more than 80%.
Unfortunately, the new right-wing isolationists in Congress are more responsive to online trends and demagogic commentators than the actual voters. They care more about what the newly anti-Israel Tucker Carlson and his very-online X followers have to say than the base that supported them in the first place. This is a recipe for electoral disaster.
It will also be a disaster for the country if Republicans are unable to to mount opposition to President Joe Biden’s foreign policy weakness. As chaos has broken out across the world during his administration, Biden and his national security team have emphasized “de-escalation” and accommodation rather than outright victory against America’s enemies. His policies have emboldened revanchists in China, Iran, and Russia. Republicans should be leading the charge against this fecklessness — but the rising isolationist faction is making it difficult to draw a stark contrast.
During his endorsement of Bacon, Levin told his audience, “I’ve had it up to here with the isolationists. They’re going to get us in World War III, just like they got us into World War II.” Levin and other conservatives in favor of strong foreign policy understand that liberal weakness and far-right anti-interventionism alike fail to put America first. Letting our enemies march across the map unimpeded is certainly not in the national interest.
As Reagan put it in his famous A Time for Choosing speech: “You and I have the courage to say to our enemies, ‘There is a price we will not pay.’ ‘There is a point beyond which they must not advance.’”
Only a Republican Party with that Reaganite confidence can truly unite the public. Insurgent isolationists may be trying to undermine this kind of bold conservatism, but primary voters have made it clear they support a strong foreign policy that advances American interests abroad. It is just up to their leaders in Washington to represent their will.
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Michael Lucchese is the founder of Pipe Creek Consulting, an associate editor for Law & Liberty, and a contributing editor to Providence.
