Donald Trump has already revealed who he is. He is a narcissistic, authoritarian with an ethno-nationalistic message, who shamelessly sells his message without concern for truth or hypocrisy.
A lot of people like that. That is why he is president.
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| Robert Mueller |
He is a bad boy. But what if he is not our bad boy, after all? What if he is Putin's?
Many Democrats have some hope that the Mueller investigation will uncover some crime or vulnerability that is so flagrant that Trump will leave office early. It is possible--but unlikely.
Trump's has inoculated himself. We already know he is self-serving. We already know he is likely indebted to Russians financially. We already know he has outrageous involvements with women. Even if--improbably--Americans were actually to see videos of Russian prostitutes peeing on him, what would that change? Nothing. We already know he does this kind of thing.
Trump's has inoculated himself. We already know he is self-serving. We already know he is likely indebted to Russians financially. We already know he has outrageous involvements with women. Even if--improbably--Americans were actually to see videos of Russian prostitutes peeing on him, what would that change? Nothing. We already know he does this kind of thing.
Trump would deny the validity of anything Mueller brings forth, and then boldly assert that all that fake information only makes him more tough on Russia.
Trump has his brand. The rule breaker. The guy who can change a rigged system because he is willing to break things.
The Mueller investigation has complications for the left.
We have unclean hands. Thoughtful people have recognized that evidence of Russian collusion in our elections actually brings up our own history of interference in the elections of others. The American CIA is notorious for its meddling in Latin America, in the Middle East, and around the world. We openly and proudly used the available technology--the radio--to send Western Voice of America messages to Central and Eastern Europe in the Cold War.
China believes that right now America, via the internet, is sending dangerous and subversive ideas into China, ideas which will destroy social harmony, and undermine the government. That is why Google has not been available in China, and why they are, at this very minute, finalizing a China version of Google, one scrubbed of mind-mischief.
We call what Russian actions an "attack on our democracy." It is also karma, payback, and a taste of our own medicine.
The Mueller investigation also has a premise that Democrats and the rising progressive left find uncomfortable. It demonizes Russia, the former grand experiment in socialism, and at just the time when some of the most popular candidates on the left use the word "Socialist" to describe themselves..The Mueller probe re-affirms Cold War thinking. Trump got political traction in the campaign saying he was the peace candidate. Isn't peace with Russia a good thing, he asked? The anti-war left saw Trump as a source of hope, and thought Hillary wore the blinders of the military-industrial complex, locked into the past.
College classmate Jim Stodder, like any good academic, he can hold multiple nuances in mind simultaneously yet still reach a conclusion. He wrote me the Guest Post below, recognizing the complications for the left, but then concluded that there was a bigger issue. Vladimir Putin has an agenda, it is not benign, and we are the target.
And our president is caught up in it. Maybe Trump isn't just a rule breaking bad boy. Maybe he is Trump's bad boy.
Guest Post by Jim Stodder
[Jim Stodder, PhD, Economics, is a Visiting Professor of Practice in the Department of Administrative Sciences at Metropolitan College, Boston University. His professional website is: www.JimStodder.com]
"I have been puzzled by the reluctance of some on the left to credit the Mueller investigation. One friend on the left warns it is a red herring.
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| Jim Stodder |
I am sympathetic to some of the reasons for this left skepticism. One is that the US has done far worse than what Russia is accused of doing -- for decades, and in elections all over the world. True, but not so relevant, given present political threats.
The second reason, if I interpret it right, is not wanting to wait for the magic bullet of a Mueller indictment, when there are better reasons to attack Trump right now. Add to this a reluctance to make common cause with anti-Trump hawks like Bill Kristol or David Frum. (The mirror image of that left-right alliance is for Stephen F. Cohen to make nice with Tucker Carlson on Fox, to express his skepticism about 'Russiagate.')
Both of these reasons to soft-pedal the Russia investigation have some overlap with arguments that the Democratic party should tack to the left for the midterms. I'm fine with that in safe blue districts, e.g., Ocasio-Cortez. But as a general electoral strategy, it is to take the Trump bait, which is now also the Russian bait.
These forces are now trying to mobilize anti-Dem voters by sending ultra-left messages to moderate and conservative voters, and to goad left forces into stupid counter-productive actions.
It is quite worrying, to note the Q signs appearing at Trump rallies. This Q group is mobilizing to resist efforts by the 'deep state', aka 'the rule of law,' to rein in Trump's illegality.
We may well face a constitutional crisis as the Mueller investigation draws to a head. The Russian and Trumpian trolls (Miller, Bannon) will then try to mobilize the most volatile wings of the right AND left -- Q vs. AntiFa -- to create the conditions for martial law.
We must resist this attack on the rule of law with the broadest possible coalition of moderate forces. Far from shunning honorable conservatives like McCain, Frum, and Kristol, we should welcome them with open arms.
I am astonished that good people on the left cannot see what Putin is doing -- stoking left or right forces indifferently, as long as they can undermine the liberal democratic order. We need to stop thinking in reactive terms of 'the enemy of my enemy,' and recognize the greater enemy."
Vladimir Putin is the leader of an international fascist movement, and Trump is on his team. Don't take my word for it -- I only know a little bit on Russia. Go to real Russia experts. Read Stephen F. Cohen in the Nation. But then also read Timothy Snyder on his blog or the New York Review, and Anne Applebaum in the Washington Post. Ask yourself who has more logic and evidence on their side.
And if you still doubt both sides, ask yourself where the greater danger lies.
3 comments:
I have to agree with Jim Stodder. I am daily dismayed that many of my recently politicized and anti-Democrat leftist friends are playing so neatly into this handbook. They read that the Russia investigation isn't relevant, that the real enemy are "corporate Democrats", and wax angrily against everyone from Cory Booker to Nancy Pelosi. I hope only that their share of the electorate is small enough that they do not manage to sabotage the November election and cement control by the complicit Republicans.
The greater danger is all out war between US and Russia. How do we prevent this? I'm genuinely confused as to the correct answer. I appreciate the thoughtful guest post.
I've been opposed for years to the provocative moves by NATO, encircling Russia, as noted in a post by Peter a couple of weeks ago. But the DC and European Establishment barreled right ahead, the better to fill the coffers of Lockheed et al. It took a reality TV con man to come along to question the Establishment consensus.
Putin was angry that the US, under Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, meddled in the 2011 Russian legislative elections. He got his revenge in 2016. I'm sure not willing to destroy the planet in nuclear war over this game of tit for tat.
Tell me who hired the black hooded snipers in Kiev that set off the fascist putsch, and I'll know who my real enemy is, fomenting war and conflict worldwide. I suspect it is the CIA.
I've always been suspicious of the CIA, always wanted to see it abolished, so it kinda drives me crazy to see liberals now taking the side of 'our intelligence community' in opposition to Trump. Huh? Not a community I'm a part of, never have been.
Putin is not my friend, Trump is not my friend, and the CIA is not my friend. What now?
Let me comment on the comments. I appreciate the good words, but Curt A. and 'Voice' misinterpret my last question -- about where the greatest danger lies. I meant the danger if we go along with the Trump-Putin 'good relationship' vs. the danger if we go with the judgment of our intelligence agencies on Russia's actions. I cited Russia experts like Cohen who argue for the Trump view, and Snyder and Applebaum who argue for the FBI view.
I did not raise the question of which *country* is the greatest threat to the US. I would tend to agree with Curt A. that China is a more serious long-term threat. But I would also note that China and Russia work together on lots of issues, such as support for North Korea.
In terms of a basic threat to democracy, Russia and China share an interest in seeing liberal democracy and independent media discredited, especially in the US. They both do their best to suppress them in their own countries. Anyone who has spent time in either country will know that most media is state-controlled, and that people are very careful about what they say, always 'looking over their shoulder.'
So this leads me to try to answer the question of 'Voice' -- who should we trust? Trust no one in authority, I would say. Trust in the ability of democratic systems, if they are basically free of state or corporate control, to *eventually* get things right. Even if that is only, as Churchill quipped, after having exhausted all the alternatives.
That's what China and Russia don't have, and what their leaders don't want -- either for themselves or for us. And it's what we have going for us, if we can hold onto our democracy. The rise of Donald Trump has made that more of a question than it used to be.
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