President Joe Biden’s announcement Tuesday banning Russian oil imports presents what may be the most difficult test yet of Americans’ willingness today to sacrifice for the nation’s greater good. Already-high gas prices are sure to spike further with the ban, frustrating drivers and giving Republicans an opportunity to further demagogue the issue. The GOP should resist that urge — and all Americans should remember sacrifices that earlier generations made in times of war.
Pain at the pumps is real, but it pales against the pain of sending American soldiers into armed conflict against another superpower. Yet allowing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to go unanswered is also an unacceptable option. What’s left is for this divided country to come together and accept the approaching economic pain as the price of standing up to tyranny.
That principle — standing up to tyranny — is the answer to the short-sighted voices suggesting the U.S. has no national interest in defending Ukraine. If Ukraine or any other fledgling democracy can simply be brought under the thumb of a neighboring autocrat for no reason but that he decides he wants it, then democracy isn’t safe anywhere. America’s special place as a beacon of democracy and freedom gives it a special responsibility to stand up to such unprovoked aggression.
But America must do so responsibly, and risking a shooting war between nuclear superpowers would be the height of irresponsibility. That effectively takes direct U.S. military action in Ukraine off the table. However, America’s economic might, and its ability to rally other economies of the free world, can be the most effective weapon short of war. That is the weapon that Biden deployed with unprecedented force on Tuesday.
Banning all oil, natural gas and coal imports from Russia won’t be crippling to America’s economy — Russian energy is a modest portion of the U.S. supply — but it will be felt in the form of higher fuel and transportation prices. It will be, as Biden aptly called it, “Putin’s price hike.”
Unfortunately, some political voices in the U.S. have already been spreading misinformation that will complicate the issue. The often-heard Republican claim that Biden has diminished U.S. domestic oil production is simply false — lower production was the choice of oil companies because of a steep decline in demand during the pandemic. It takes time to ramp production back up. Given that these Republicans are among the critics who have been demanding that Biden “get tough” with Russia, this would be a good time for them to set aside this partisan opportunism and start pulling for the same team.
Regular Americans should take inspiration from the World War II generation, which lived through not only higher prices but rationed gasoline, butter, sugar, meat, dairy and other staples. They were doing their part to defend the world against tyranny. Now it needs defending again.