Why am I even shocked by this sort of thing anymore?
Were these people in a deep coma during the Cold War? I think I can hear Ronald Reagan spinning in his grave.
All those 50’s paranoia flicks about Russian’s infiltrating our society aren’t quite as funny anymore.
Pleasant thought for the day. Certainly the Russian infiltration/compromise/coordination/whatever you want to call it with a good chunk of the Republican Party and several conservative lobbying groups is, at this point, pretty undeniable. But let’s also consider that Russian intelligence didn’t give up on the American so-called Left just because they failed to get much traction there. Jill Stein, Dennis Kucinich, Tulsi Gabbard, maybe even Tad Devine. Small players, certainly, but they were very much used to effect, particularly with what I’d call the whipsaw effect. Trump won, and Stein immediately ran a pretty strange recount campaign. Strange in that there was pretty much never any chance at all it would uncover any significant irregularities, even if there were some to find, due to how voting happens in most of the affected states. But by actually having the recounts happen, it legitimized the win – and since this was the only conceivable outcome of a recount in those states, it wasn’t even a gamble.
The success of the Russian Right triggered a very predictable reaction from the Left, and the Russian Left, small as it was, had a game plan to make the most of their position.
Now Democrats are running new fresh faces in red districts that have never before been competitive. Who are these Democrats? Exactly how much vetting does a fresh face get, or are the Democrats happy to take anyone willing to run in Oklahoma? I truly believe that quite a few Republicans are deeply and dangerously compromised by Russian intelligence services. But not all of them are. If those that aren’t compromised get swept out of office by some newbie out of nowhere, are we actually adding one to the Russian tally? We’ve already got one Tulsi Gabbard, could a Blue Wave give us ten or fifteen?
Not that I think a Blue Wave isn’t pretty much the only thing that can lead to a good outcome. Just a cautionary note about the “Anybody is better than XXX” mentality. There’s nothing about the Democratic Party that makes them immune to Russian infiltration. Maybe it’s harder, but that’s not really the same thing at all. We’re at war. Don’t let some stranger in your HQ simply because they’re wearing an allied uniform. Check them out thoroughly.