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Why we broke tradition to honor the people of Ukraine

Why we broke tradition to honor the people of Ukraine
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L.F. Payne, a Democrat, represented Virginia’s 5th Congressional District from 1988-1997. He currently serves as President of the U.S. Association of Former Members of Congress (FMC).

Barbara Comstock, a Republican, represented Virginia’s 10th Congressional District from 2015-2019 and currently serves as President-Elect of FMC.


Since its inception in 1974, the U.S. Association of Former Members of Congress (FMC)’s Distinguished Service Award has traditionally been given to a current or former Member of Congress, who has made extraordinary contributions to the United States Congress, public service, or representative democracy. Previous recipients include President Gerald Ford, Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, Senator Sam Nunn, and Congresswoman Gabby Giffords to name a few of our incredibly deserving past honorees. However, along with our colleagues, we decided to break FMC’s long-running tradition and dedicate our 2023 Distinguished Service Award to the people of Ukraine during our annual membership meeting last month.

Over the past year and a half, the people of Ukraine have shown the world how precious representative democracy is and why it is worth fighting for. For decades, we in the United States and our allied nations around the world, in Europe in particular, have enjoyed the freedoms that our representative democracies have produced for us and that our brave service members have defended overseas.

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However, since declaring independence in 1991, freedom, democracy, and self-governance have been far from certain for the people of Ukraine. They took to the streets to protest an undemocratic presidential election in 2004, have dealt with Russia’s invasion and occupation of the Donbas region and Crimea since 2014, and now are fighting off Russia’s attempt to take even more land and overthrow their democratically elected government.

Despite the numerous internal and external threats that they have faced as a country within their short 31 years, the Ukrainian people have never lost their dream of living in a free and democratic Ukraine. Their resolve should truly serve as an inspiration for us all.

Today, many of our authoritarian adversaries constantly opine that democracy does not work and is an outdated model but the people of Ukraine and their unrelenting fight for freedom prove them wrong. From Lviv to Kharkiv, from the capital of Kiev to the villages in the Donbas, the Ukrainian people are not only fighting for their democracy, but they are also making the case for why representative democracy is the strongest, most enduring, and just system of government this world has ever seen.

They have reinvigorated the concept and promise of representative democracy on the world stage and for this reason, we along with our colleagues believe they are incredibly deserving of our 2023 Distinguished Service Award.

We were honored to be joined by Ukrainian Ambassador to the United States, Oksana Markarova at our annual meeting, who graciously accepted the award on behalf of the Ukrainian people. In her speech, she spoke of the harrowing conditions they are facing both on the battlefield and in every aspect of daily life, Ukraine’s deep appreciation of the United States military and humanitarian support, and our shared values that their brave men and women are fighting for.

The award she accepted on behalf of the tens of millions of Ukrainians is made out of the original marble from the steps leading to the U.S. Capitol building. Steps that were traveled by those who played integral roles in the construction and fortification of our own democracy. Its symbolism is meant to underscore the value of the Ukrainian people’s contribution to representative democracy worldwide.

We were honored to recognize the sacrifices of the people of Ukraine in this way, and to use the broad bipartisan voice of our association to show support for the Ukrainian people.

We hope and pray for the safety of the people of Ukraine and will keep them in our hearts as they continue to fight for their freedom and inspire the rest of the free world.

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A common point of bewilderment today among many of Trump’s “establishment” critics is the all too tepid response to Trump’s increasingly brazen shattering of democratic norms. True, he started this during his first term, but in his second, Trump seems to relish the weaponization of his presidency to go after his enemies and to brandish his corrupt dealings, all under the Trump banner (e.g. cyber currency, Mideast business dealings, the Boeing 747 gift from Qatar). Not only does Trump conduct himself with impunity but Fox News and other mainstream media outlets barely cover them at all. (And when left-leaning media do, the interest seems to wane quickly.)

Here may be the source of the puzzlement: the left intelligentsia continues to view and characterize MAGA as a political movement, without grasping its transcendence into a new dominant cultural order. MAGA rose as a counter-establishment partisan drive during Trump’s 2016 campaign and subsequent first administration; however, by the 2024 election, it became evident that MAGA was but the eye of a full-fledged cultural shift, in some ways akin to Mao’s Cultural Revolution.

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As the United States deepens its investments in artificial intelligence (AI) partnerships abroad, it is moving fast — signing deals, building labs, and exporting tools. Recently, President Donald Trump announced sweeping AI collaborations with Gulf countries like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. These agreements, worth billions, are being hailed as historic moments for digital diplomacy and technological leadership.

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Senate Bill 16 would require new registrants and some existing registered voters to prove they are U.S. citizens.

Amber Mills, issue advocacy director for the Move Texas Civic Fund, said the requirement would be in addition to what the state already does to check someone's eligibility.

"When you're completing a voter form, you do also have to submit either your driver's license number or your Social Security number," Mills pointed out. "That's really important because that is how the state verifies who you are, and that's a key indicator that they use to protect their databases on the back end."

Even if you were born in the U.S., the bill could require you to show proof of citizenship with a passport or birth certificate matching your current name. According to the Secure Democracy Foundation, more than 38% percent of rural and small-town Texans do not have a passport.

Anyone who cannot prove citizenship would be placed on a separate voter roll and could only cast ballots in the U.S. House and Senate races.

Emily French, policy director for the advocacy group Common Cause Texas, said the additional barriers could prevent many residents from casting their votes in local, state and presidential races.

"All the DPS systems, all the immigration systems which say that they are citizens, but there can still be mistakes that mark them as noncitizens and could throw them off the voter rolls until they come in with these documents that they don't have," French explained.

The bill directs the Texas Secretary of State's Office to check all registered voters' status by the end of the year and send the names of registered voters who have not proven their citizenship before September 2025 to county elections offices.

Mills noted if you are flagged, there is no online system to comply with the request and all paperwork must be submitted in person.

"We are not disputing the goal of having only eligible citizens on the voter rolls, but we know that Texas already has strong systems in place," Mills emphasized. "It's ultimately the state's responsibility, the county's responsibility to do these voter roll checks, but what SB 16 would do is not change any of that, not improve any of that. It would just add an additional burden."

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