Thoughts on Ukrainian-born Rep. Victoria Spartz who voted NO on aid to Ukraine?

America First Immigrant Patriot or Deracinated Political Mercenary?

source: @KareemRifai on X

Republican congresswoman, Victoria Spartz is a Ukrainian immigrant and the only Ukrainian-born person in the US House of Representatives. However, Spartz opposed the recent massive foreign aid package to Ukraine. On one hand, Spartz could exemplify an immigrant who puts the interests of their adopted nation first. However, another interpretation is that she is someone quick to betray their ancestral homeland for political interests.

There is an argument that militarily backing Ukraine, thus prolonging the war, is getting more Ukrainians unnecessarily killed. However, supporting Israel is helping Israel at the expense of the Palestinians. This is because Ukraine is weaker than Russia while Israel is much more powerful than the Palestinians. US support for Ukraine is tricky because a lot of Ukraine’s backers in America’s establishment don’t actually care about Ukraine but rather have ulterior motives to weaken Russia. Perhaps this was Spartz’s legitimate concern about US aid to Ukraine.

At the beginning of the war, Victoria Spartz was outspoken against Putin, as genocidal, and generally very supportive of her country of birth. Then she changed her tune and spoke out against Zelensky’s regime as corrupt. While this nuanced take seems reasonable by itself, I suspect she pivoted on Ukraine to appeal to MAGA. Republicans are less pressured to support Ukraine than at the beginning of the war, and GOP reps get called out as RHINOs by MAGA for supporting Ukraine. Like a lot of other MAGA Republicans, Spartz seems to be singling out aid to Ukraine while having less of a problem with aid to Taiwan and Israel, and expressed unconditional support for Israel. However, she rejected the entire aid package and voted against FISA, which is good.

Spartz has been called a traitor to both the US and to Ukraine, as the Democrats have with opponents of the Ukraine war. The problem with calling someone a traitor is what it means to be an American is increasingly meaningless, with no shared identity or principles. American Nationalists will attack people for having dual loyalty, but it is a lot to ask of people to give up their ancestral identities, to be loyal to what amounts to an economic zone with nukes.

The vacuum left by the ineptitude of American civic nationalism has led to political tribes taking the place of national loyalty, even more so than ancestral-based tribes. If you are a White male Democrat you have to signal against your own identity, while Republicans have their own tribal loyalty oaths. I honestly don’t know what Spartz’s motives are but her stance sparks an interesting discussion about questions of identity and to whom and to what entities and principles Americans should be loyal to.