[Peace-discuss] Russia and the Democrats

[David Johnson]

This statement from the article I think pretty well sums up what the bottom
line problem was for people who bought into the Russia gate conspiracy
theory. In essence, not knowing who the corporate special interests are who
control this country and believing the corporate owned and financed media,
the mouthpiece of the ruling class. -

" The New York Times and Washington Post have been publishing politically
motivated 'fake news' in support of establishment interests since their
inceptions. Their service to powerful interests is why they are still
around. The FBI, CIA and NSA have been putting out politically motivated
bullshit since their respective inceptions. They exist to serve the rich and
powerful against all comers."

Russia and the Democrats: Rob Urie's Scathing (and Irrefutable) Indictment
of the Party's Moral Hypocrisy and Sheer Imbecility

Two years ago authors Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes
<https://www.amazon.com/Shattered-Inside-Hillary-Clintons-Campaign/dp/055344
7084?tag=bisafetynet-20> wrote in their book
<https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0553447084/counterpunchmaga>
Shattered: Inside Hillary Clinton's Doomed Campaign that within 24 hours of
her 2016 electoral loss, Hillary Clinton's senior campaign staff decided to
blame the loss on Russian interference. Given the apparent source of the
charge in
<https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3259984-Trump-Intelligence-Allegati
ons.html> opposition research
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/clinton-campaign-dnc
-paid-for-research-that-led-to-russia-dossier/2017/10/24/226fabf0-b8e4-11e7-
a908-a3470754bbb9_story.html?utm_term=.c93f9d2ccb18>  funded by the Clinton
campaign, the move seemed both desperate and pathetic- a thread for
Clinton's true believers to hang onto, an effort to keep campaign
contributions rolling in and a ploy to cleave liberals from the left through
red-baiting.

For perspective, from the time leading up to the 2016 election through
today, I chose to live amongst poor and working-class people of color, with
occasional forays into the rural working and middle classes and the urban
bourgeois. What became apparent early on is that the audience for the
Russian interference story was the urban and suburban bourgeois who had seen
their lots by-and-large restored by Barack Obama's bank bailouts and who had
no knowledge of, or interaction with, the 90% of the country that is living,
by degree, hand-to-mouth.

What this implies is that the received wisdom amongst bourgeois Democrats-
the bosses, bank managers, academics, realtors and administrative class,
looks to be what it is: a combination of class loathing that their 'lessors'
didn't perceive the munificent blessing of their electoral choice; mass
delusion on the part of self-styled 'high-information voters' about who
really controls American 'democracy;' and studied ignorance of the
consequences of the last half-century of bi-partisan neoliberal governance.

As I
<https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/02/09/why-russian-meddling-is-a-trojan-ho
rse/> wrote in early 2018:

"Prior to the 2016 presidential election, if one were to ask what single act
could seal a new Cold War with Russia, align liberals and progressives with
the operational core of the American military-industrial-surveillance
complex, expose the preponderance of left-activism as an offshoot of
Democratic Party operations and consign most of what remained to personal
invective against an empirically dangerous leader, consensus would likely
have it that doing so wouldn't be easy."

  _____  

The Clinton campaign's decision to blame her electoral loss on Russian
interference demonstrates why she was, and still is, unqualified to hold
elected office. In the first, the U.S. - Russian rivalry is backed-up by
hair-trigger nuclear arsenals that could end the world in a matter of
minutes. Inciting tensions based on self-serving lies is stunningly
reckless. In the second, the claim demonstrates utter contempt for her most
loyal followers by feeding them purposely misleading explanations of the
loss. And most damagingly for political opponents of Donald Trump, these
actions give credence to the insurgent status of his retro-Republicanism
against liberal and left defenders of the political establishment.

Most damaging to the burgeoning left in the U.S. is the deeply ugly
character assassination of poor and working-class voters carried out by the
urban bourgeois, many from the self-described radical left. People I know
and like, but with whom I disagree politically but am working hard to
convert, have spent the last three years being derided as traitorous,
marginally literate hicks too stupid to know they are pawns of the Kremlin.
The irony, if you care to call it that, is that they knew the Russian
interference story was cynical bullshit all along while the graduate degree
crowd was following every twist and turn as if it were true knowledge.

What became apparent early on is that the audience for the Russian
interference story was the urban and suburban bourgeois who had seen their
lots by-and-large restored by Barack Obama's bank bailouts and who had no
knowledge of, or interaction with, the 90% of the country that is living, by
degree, hand-to-mouth.

The Democratic Party 'leadership' that pursued this story is as stupid as it
is corrupt. The purpose of Russia-gate was apparently to keep the Party
faithful, faithful. But as was demonstrated in 2016, the faithful alone
can't win an election. This leadership turned what could have been an
effective 'give 'em enough rope' strategy against arrogant jackass Trump
back on itself. The establishment-left had been in the process of giving
self-described socialists someone to vote for in 2020. Too-clever-by-half
liberal twaddle about 'post-truth' now has liberals- universally conflated
with the left, perceived as both idiots and liars. And rightly so.

Democrats who spent the last three years making less than plausible (and
politically retrograde) accusations against Mr. Trump likely still don't
understand their current position. Their call for an exhaustive
investigation carried out by people they trust was honored. While the
investigation was underway, the mainstream press put one ludicrous fantasy
after another forward as news. This while a host of real issues affecting
real people's lives were studiously ignored. As incredulous as I am that it
could be done, liberal Democrats have made corrupt oligarch Trump appear to
be righteously aggrieved. Who says these people have no talent?

The New York Times and Washington Post have been publishing politically
motivated 'fake news' in support of establishment interests since their
inceptions. Their service to powerful interests is why they are still
around. The FBI, CIA and NSA have been putting out
<https://www.dni.gov/files/documents/ICA_2017_01.pdf> politically motivated
bullshit since their respective inceptions. They exist to serve the rich and
powerful against all comers. To claim these as bastions of integrity was
always a tough sell. To continue to claim it is the stuff from which
revolutions are made. In this case, right-wing revolutions.

While the urban bourgeois have long been dismissive of the 'burn it down'
contingent of Trump voters, they seem incapable of seeing their own roles as
defenders of the establishment as corrupt and ultimately, politically
suicidal. I voted for a woman for president and a black man for vice
president in 2016. But they weren't Democrats. Hillary Clinton lost the 2016
election because she is a corrupt, neoliberal, militaristic piece of shit.
Ironically, or not, most of Trump voters I've spoken with know more about
the Democrats' actual record than the highly educated urban bourgeois
pontificating on NPR or in the New York Times.

A quick bet is that the 2020 presidential election is now Donald Trump's to
lose. Lying sacks of shit like James Clapper and John Brennan will tie their
lots to whomever will fund their adventures in mal-governance as the world
burns and species become extinct. The tragedy here is that there are real
issues in need of resolution. The Democrats' three-year adventure in
red-baiting served to legitimate a financial-military-industrial complex
that apparently intends to end the planet as it makes as many people
miserable in the process as is possible. Congratulations assholes.

 

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