Justice & Law Quote by Vito Fossella

Democracy here functions less as a destination than as a sales pitch for policy. Fossella’s line does two jobs at once: it frames Ukraine as a moral project ("freedoms and rights") and then pivots to the transactional lever the U.S. can pull ("normalizing trade relations"). The rhetorical move is classic Washington triangulation - values up front, economics as the mechanism, geopolitical alignment as the unstated prize.

The intent is to make trade sound like solidarity rather than self-interest. By describing Ukraine as "successfully moving toward democracy", Fossella preloads the argument with momentum: progress is already happening, so assistance feels like backing a winner, not underwriting a risky transformation. The phrase "we can help" positions the U.S. as both partner and gatekeeper, implying Ukraine’s reforms are real but incomplete - and that access to markets is a reward for political maturation.

The subtext is that democracy is legible when it is market-compatible. "Normalizing trade relations" is Washington code: remove barriers, grant favorable status, integrate a post-Soviet state into Western economic architecture. In the early 2000s context - when Ukraine’s orientation between Russia and the West was a live question, and U.S. policy often bundled reform talk with trade liberalization - this kind of language offered a palatable bipartisan rationale. Supporting Ukraine becomes an extension of a larger story: expand the liberal order, shrink the gray zone, and do it through commerce because commerce sounds pragmatic, non-militarized, and inevitable.

It works because it flatters every audience at once: human rights advocates hear progress; business interests hear opportunity; strategists hear a country being nudged out of Russia’s orbit without saying the quiet part out loud.