The outrage, the unbelievable, the unimaginable; a foreign nation interfering with another’s national elections and governmental process. The audacity of disclosing emails; the horror. Marshall the members of the Senate and the House. Form special committees, investigate and retaliate… but, but, wait; take a deep breath….
Let’s look at ourselves in this process. We, the United States, have sponsored, promoted, and engaged in overt and covert regime change actions as a standard practice. Since the end of WWII Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty has been a, not so subtle, influencing tool we’ve employed to spread our version of the truth to destabilize the communist east. We double downed and added Radio Free China and Radio Free Cuba, along with others as well. We’ve spied upon and hacked our allies’ networks; as they no doubt have done to ours. We’ve participated in and sponsored ‘justified’ attempts at regime change, which were ‘in our country’s best interest’. We were there in Chile ’73, Nicaragua ’82-’89, Panama ’89, Haiti ’91, Iraq ’94-’96, Iran ’03 & ’05, Libya ’11, and Syria ’05-’16.
And now we’re incensed over the exposure of emails during our Presidential election. We should be more incensed over the DNC favoritism and manipulation during the primaries. More frustrated by the arrogance of candidates who put themselves above the law and common sense for convenience. More disappointed by the pandering and policy statements in private fund-raising and speaking engagements which were found to be in direct conflict with what was being declared publicly.
Maybe it does matter how we found out about these travesties. But maybe, just maybe, it matters more that they took place than were disclosed. Whether it was Assange, Wikileaks, Russia, Putin, or that guy in Jersey, we found our system is not pure and clean. Something we already knew, Bernie told us, but who listened?
Before we get too carried away with our outrage let’s take a real hard look in the mirror and reassess our efforts in regime influencing and change. This year, the choice between a bombastic, insulting chauvinist and an arrogant, deceitful elitist left us to wallow in a cesspool of our own making. Our system works best with an educated, informed electorate and candidates who are willing to engage in thoughtful policy debate. The principles of our system are strong, but let’s recognize other nation’s will also do ‘what’s in the best interest of their country’ just as we have repeatedly done for ours, and will undoubtedly continue to do.
simplebender 