The Expressive Function of the Russia Freakout

[JA]

Putin and Trump Couldn’t Make the Relationship Work

You must be logged in to read this quote.

Bulletin: The Expressive Function of the Russia Freakout (Subscribers Only)

You must be logged in to read this quote.

Russiagate Can't End Well for the Left

You must be logged in to read this quote.

tl;dr the collective Russia freakout is largely ridiculous because (a) Trump has ceded nothing of substance to Putin or Russia, (b) practical legislation aimed at curbing foreign interference in American elections has been signed into law already, (c) many states simply aren't following through with enforcement of practical steps to safeguard elections, (d) Americans don't consider Russiagate a top priority, (e) Liberals and the Establishment are using it in a politically charged manner to whip up nationalist fervor and demonize those they deem insufficiently anti-Russian, (f) all of this is echoing the same fanaticism and paranoia of the Second Red Scare, (g) and Democrats risk self-harm by some elements trying to use the Russian meddling issue to protect and promote Establishment candidates at the expense of Leftist insurgents. Don't buy the bs. You can believe Russia meddled without becoming a paranoid hack about it.

[JA]

I love how almost everyone here missed the point. Trump hasn’t given anything of substance to Russia, there has been substantive legislation passed to tackle the foreign meddling in elections issue, and  nobody is denying the possibility (or probability) that Trump & Co. collaborated with Russia to some extent in the 2016 election. The issues are (a) how fanatical Democrats are getting about this and particularly as a campaign issue, (b) that fanaticism could have dangerous long-term consequences to global politics and international relations, (c) it’s the state’s that are failing to act to safeguard our elections and Democrats are focused more on the rhetoric of this issue than substantively addressing it, and (d) this is not a winning issue that Democrats think it is.

Of course, the standard Liberals on this site will automatically turn to the bs you’d expect, like: “you’re defending a dictator,” “you’re secretly defending Trump,” “you don’t care about America,” blah blah blah. It’s the same nationalistic schtick roles out every time a group wants to beat the drums and create an “us vs them” situation. Now that they think this is a winning issue, Liberals are perfectly happy to play the same card just a decade ago they bashed the Neoconservatives in the Bush Administration and GOP for doing.

[JA]

We have states actively purging voters from voting rolls, yet paranoid and frequently incomprehensible nonsense about our elections having been infiltrated by wily ex-Soviets dominates our conversations.

Democracy in the United States is dysfunctional in many ways. Dubious accounts of foreign interference, mostly put forward by the kind of person who uses "cyber" as a noun, rank low on any reasonable list of those concerns. Nothing has come to light so far that materially affected the outcome of the 2016 presidential election or that even approaches a level of malfeasance that would justify hysterical cries of "treason."

This is what comes of watching too much television.

^^ Amen.

[JA]

You guys really want to die on this hill?

The far left has a vested interest in dismissing Russia's meddling. They don't want to admit they got played like a fiddle by Putin, who used them as useful idiots in their character assassination of Hillary. I can't blame them, it is indeed quite embarrassing for them.

The degree to which your viewpoints expressed in your posts are detached from reality have ceased to surprise me anymore. I mean, I voted for Clinton and, in an election between any Republican and her, would do so again.