The following is a fictional example of a cable sent from an allied European nation’s intelligence service chief of station in Washington to the headquarters. It reflects the analysis of the country’s senior-most intelligence officer on the scene, based on all source reporting over time. Such products are routinely produced by all intelligence services around the world and are often passed to senior-level decision-makers, including presidents and prime ministers. I have written such cables as a CIA officer, with one American president having had a grand time trying to pronounce my last name in the Oval Office. CIA officers often pride themselves as some of the smartest observers of local politics in any given country, given the agency’s requirement to hit the streets and obtain ground truth reporting. This ethos would be no different from that of our allies serving in Washington, reporting on our own political machinations.
From: Chief of Station, Washington
To: Chief, America’s Desk
Subject: Whither the Party of Lincoln?
I have spent several years as the station chief in Washington, D.C. I look at America both as an impartial observer, as is expected of this position, but also as someone who comes from Europe and thus understands what America has meant to a continent oft-ravaged by war and in need of assistance from across the pond. American exceptionalism, derided by some in Europe as a mixture of braggadocio and colonialism, actually has great merit, given how America, not Europe but America, has always seemed to play the leading role in fighting for freedom and democracy in Europe.
We learned last week that America has provided 48 billion euros of assistance to Ukraine, compared with just 28 billion euros from Europe. Yet our GDPs are essentially the same. One wonders what Europe would be without America, the latter’s legacy of support to the former measured from the beaches of Normandy in World War II to the streets of Kyiv today. Still, it is in contemplation of this tradition that I fear for the future of democracy in the country where I have served over the last four years.
From all accounts, the U.S. Republican Party (GOP) has undergone a profound transformation over the last five years. Once fringe characters have come to the forefront. The party of Lincoln has tolerated and in some instances embraced an extremist wing that is profoundly anti-democratic and sometimes reminds me of a pro-fascist mob. This group distrusts and rejects fundamental aspects of American democracy. This streak has permeated through local, state, and national discourse. Many Republicans worship former President Donald Trump as a cult leader. They appear divorced from the reality that Trump was the ringleader of an anti-democratic coup attempt on Jan. 6, 2021.
The Texas GOP convention held in early June offered a startling example of the rot. President Ronald Reagan and Sen. John McCain would have been ashamed. Take the experience of a Republican representative from Texas, Dan Crenshaw. A former Navy SEAL who served with valor and is a legitimate war hero, Crenshaw was actually mocked by some attendees for his eye patch. The Texas GOP then approved some wildly regressive language regarding LBGT rights, which was not only immoral but also out of touch with the majority of voters in Texas. But the most devastating aspect of the convention was the language stating outright that President Joe Biden was not duly elected.
The Republican Party in Texas, the second largest state in the land, actually found the election illegitimate. What is most concerning for us in Europe is the potential alliance of the American anti-democratic right with similar-minded political entities on our continent. This is perhaps best reflected in Hungary’s hosting of a Trump-aligned Conservative Political Action Committee meeting in Budapest last month. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has become a darling of the U.S. hard Right. These people see Orban as a fellow cultural warrior. They admire him for his authoritarian stance, his unashamed promoting of one-party rule, and his campaigns against immigration and gay rights. They applaud Orban’s promotion of Christianity as fundamental to beating back the, presumably Muslim, nonbelievers.
Even more troubling is the American Right’s shared admiration of Orban’s partner, Russian President Vladimir Putin. Prior to the war in Ukraine, social media on the Right was filled with laudatory comments and videos about the toughness of the “nonwoke” Russian military. I cannot stress the disbelief that we in the embassy felt in seeing more than a few on the American Right describing Putin, a war criminal, with affection. Europe, of course, is not immune to such fascist pressures as well. Alongside Orban, we’ve seen Marine Le Pen’s National Rally party winning up to 80 seats in the French National Assembly. This growing alliance of the American and European hard Right should trigger memories of the dark period just prior to World War II.
The question is, what do we in Europe do? As a close ally of the U.S., we are at an inflection point. Do we offer friendly advice to the GOP that would be morally and ethically correct but likely to have zero actual effect? Indeed, such an effort may cause a backlash from our American friends. Or do we just remain totally silent as we watch a major political party of our closest ally fall deeper into a hole that may not be recoverable? My parents talked with incredible admiration of U.S. soldiers liberating Europe. That is the country many of us admire — not those CPAC attendees or Orban the glowing host who thrive on anger and resentment and promote authoritarianism, even fascism, as a legitimate governing ideology.
As I leave my posting this week, my contacts in the foreign policy establishment in Washington, which include mainstream Democrats and Republicans alike, all expressed universal concern over the Trump-inspired anti-democratic disease inside the GOP. Trump has unleashed a torrent of anger and hate, culminating in his ludicrous “Stop the Steal” fantasy that brainwashed millions of his supporters. Meanwhile, the old guard in the GOP is rapidly shrinking. I remember when Reagan would often talk about America as the “shining city on the hill.”
Given the anti–democratic trends in the GOP, will a time soon come when Reagan’s words seem incompatible with modern America?
Marc Polymeropoulos is a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council. A former CIA senior operations officer, he retired in 2019 after a 26-year career serving in the Near East and South Asia. His book Clarity in Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the CIA was published in June 2021 by HarperCollins.
