#Russia | #WhatTheyVotedFor
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Typically when large powers tamper in elections, they do it in smaller, less powerful countries, and in less direct ways. That is to say, it's usually about a larger proxy war.
This was pretty straightforward and clumsy; in the end, everything about the Russian tampering is a deviation.
And Republicans especially need to remember that the job is done; everything else is icing. The long goal is the decline of American prestige; this is inherently served by growing a hedge of mistrust between Americans and their government. In a way, this betrayal is the perfect partnership for conservatives, no matter how queer it might seem: Yes, American conservatives are now sucking up to the KGB, showering the Soviets with political gifts as Republicans set about a morbidly vibrant proof of their thesis about how government does not and cannot work.
To the other, when the purpose of government is to destroy itself, we finally see Republicans in office conducting themselves effectively and actually laboring to do something. President Trump is effectively withdrawing the United States from its international leadership role; Congressional and other Republican officials and Party officers are working as hard as they can to undermine civic confidence in government and society.
This really is about traditional suprmacist values. As "America" transforms along the arc of history, shaping after an image of Justice, traditional empowerment blocs such as Christian conservatives and the white working class no longer want to play. Do they join the bourgeoisie in transcending America, or their lowest traditional instincts in aiming to call off the Republic?
Joe, we didn't "win the Cold War" by playing nice.
Then again, if we "won the Cold War", how can the GOP possibly be preparing to surrender it?
And I do admit, your inner Cold War conservative is showing: The Left doesn't need the John Birch Society; we have plenty of newspapers and other such notions to bawl at us about history, too. In truth, that's what always got me about the whole FOX News and "liberal media conspiracy" bit. As it was, msnbc wasn't the leftward FOX News equivalent. Maybe the World Socialist Web Site↱, but I prefer to look down the ladder at Worker's Vanguard and other such endeavors to find the leftist equivalent of FOX News.
It's just weird watching you have this old Cold War argument with Iceaura; we are the preeminent empire in human history—yes, we screw with other people's elections. And our excuse then was that they did it, and would do it to us directly if they could. We don't bother with excuses, these days; I mean, the circumstantial differences are apparent, but it doesn't speak well of us to recall (ahem!) tampering in Iraqi elections; that part is slightly different.
But now they've gone and done it directly. That part seems a little different, too.
Then again, I'm an American. In all the fighting you and I might possibly have. at least conceptually, undertaken in former days, between a leftward communitarian idyll and the idea that some issues are left to citizens and the private sector to deal with, and especially considering the proposition that government does not and cannot work, I would have presumed us covered in certain ways. That is to say, by praxis I am also a storyteller, and I can remember dwelling on plots having to do with massive online endeavors and thinking these were all rugoberg slapstick; the manner in which this was undertaken seems rather quite blatant, and it really should have been preventable, but even more dubious than being good enough for government work is the twenty-first century standard of being good enough for the tech sector.
No, really: Part of the reason we're supposed to rely on the private sector instead of the government ... I mean, you remember those arguments of even twenty years ago, right?
And what did the market do? Watch closely; the infamous Sputnik "news" agency is being folded into mainstream media. What part of our private sector will be postured to not get fooled again?
Yeah. That's why.
I just think there are more important things to worry about than polishing an old Cold War bedknob.
The question of our history on this count, however, is a mere distraction from the discussion of what to do about the growing body of evidence suggesting persons within the current presidential administration have betrayed their country.
