As recently told by that stalwart champion of right-wing conservative values The Atlantic (oops, a drip of sarcasm just landed on your shirt), interference into foreign elections is hardly a passing fancy. If I had a dollar for every time America interfered into the elections of other sovereign nations, I could probably run for Congress.
More insidiously glossed over however is the documented number of times the Russians have directly sought to influence our elections and little to nothing was made of it. Was it really just 6 years ago our then Commander in Chief Barack Obama was caught on a hot mic telling Dimitri he would be more ‘flexible’ after winning re-election? Does anyone remember the cushy bromance between Boris Yeltsin and Slick Willy?
That part sadly doesn’t bother me. People, be it powerful or not, are going to pursue their own interests and alliances. What irks me is the representation that A) 2016 was the first time this happened and B) it had some sizeable impact on the decisions of millions of Americans.
The McCain and Obama camps were reportedly hacked and meddled by the Russians and the Chinese during 2008. In 1983, Ted Kennedy lackey Sen. John Tunney implored the Soviets ahead of the upcoming ’84 election to assist in an ad campaign aimed against Ronald Reagan.
The list of grievances goes on, and so does the chatter. The most idiotic and weak-sauce claim however is the inference that Russian interference elected Donald Trump. As reported by nearly anyone with an objective bone in their body, Trump won by out-working his competition while Clinton lost due to 25 years of conspicuous well documented failures.
I have good friends and close blood relatives who are liberals. Not exactly leftists or pussy-hat wearing progressives, but they voted for Hillary. I, nor our mutual friends or even parents could persuade them. So you’re telling me, a small contingent of Russian trolls on their twitter and facebook accounts, could completely nullify and realign decades of deeply held ideological beliefs?
The end game is simple with the media. The media are no longer just Americans, no, %90 of the media is owned by multinational conglomerates. They see themselves as ‘Citizens of the World‘.
Trump, with his talk of ‘America First’ and ‘Bad Trade Deals’ is not speaking their lingua franca. Coupled with his contentious and sometimes downright petty verbal sparring with the ‘fake news’ press, he is seen as a threat. Given the media wants to appease their worldwide clientele, they also want to portray him as an embarrassment. The Russian story, having lost its legal case for collusion, is now a propaganda vehicle for them. A vehicle to carry our future hazy hindsight, along with their own personal schadenfreude to a destination where a Republican victory is dismissed under the auspices of foul play.
