America is facing a serious threat on our southern flank and President Trump is finally treating it like the national-security emergency it is, not a foreign-policy parlor game for career diplomats. The administration’s stepped-up campaign against Venezuelan drug-trafficking networks — including maritime strikes, seizures, and other pressure on the Maduro regime — is about protecting American lives from cartel fentanyl and stopping the flow of illegal migration. These are not abstract policy debates; they are the front lines of homeland security.
So it’s disappointing, but not surprising, to hear Sen. Rand Paul lecture the nation about avoiding “regime change” while ignoring the collapse next door that fuels our opioid crisis and lawlessness at the border. Paul’s warnings about unintended consequences sound noble in the abstract, but they collapse into dangerous passivity when facing enemies who have shown hostility to the United States and cozy ties to terrorists and cartel networks. The Kentucky senator is right to remind us of constitutional war powers, but his reflexive reluctance to apply American strength risks turning deterrence into surrender.
That’s exactly why leaders like Rep. Greg Steube stepped up on National Report to defend a president acting to keep Americans safe and secure, and to call out the timidity from the libertarian wing that mistakes caution for principle. America’s first duty is to protect American citizens — and when rogue regimes export drugs and chaos that kill our kids and drown our communities in crime, decisive pressure is not optional; it’s imperative. The choice here is clear: support policies that defend our people, or live with the consequences of inaction.
Congress has already seen this fight play out in real time, with Democrats pushing symbolic measures to hobble enforcement while many Republicans rightly defend a robust strategy to choke off narco-traffickers and their state sponsors. The House’s recent rejection of resolutions aiming to limit the administration’s campaign was a sober reminder that most Americans want results, not hearings and hand-wringing. If opponents prefer debates in committee rooms while drug boats keep coming, voters will remember where their safety was put on the altar of ideology.
Make no mistake: this is also a geopolitical struggle. Allies like Senator Marco Rubio have warned that Maduro’s Venezuela has become a safe harbor for cartels, terrorists, and hostile foreign actors, and that the Monroe Doctrine’s spirit of protecting our hemisphere still matters. Standing strong in our hemisphere keeps adversaries guessing and protects our supply chains, our ports, and our neighborhoods from the rot that comes when despots are allowed to traffic in terror and narcotics. Weakness invites aggression; firmness restores order.
To Rand Paul’s disciples who fret over “nation-building” and long-term occupation, conservatives answer: we are not naive planners of endless wars — we are defenders of sovereignty, law, and the American family. Pressuring the Maduro regime and dismantling cartel networks is not about installing governments for them, it’s about denying them the means to murder our children with fentanyl and to erode our borders. If that upsets doctrinaire pacifists, remember that real conservatism is about protecting the nation that our forebears entrusted to us.
Rep. Steube’s defense of the administration on National Report reflects what millions of hardworking Americans know instinctively: security matters above ideology. We can debate the legal contours of war powers and oversight, and Congress should do its job, but we must not let procedural purism become an excuse for paralysis while our cities drown in drugs and our southern border is treated like an open invitation. Patriots stand with policies that put American safety first, and we should be proud of leaders who do the same.
