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.
willing to engage in conversation to pass the time in line. It was the guy wearing the unbelievable holiday sweater who caught my eye and then my ear. He was pontificating, to anyone who would listen, on his knowledge of domestic and international politics and his disgruntlement with recent cabinet selections. A demure woman commented about how worldly his knowledge was and that obviously he had traveled extensively. To her surprise, he told her he had never been outside of the state.
I paused on an overpass viewing the highway traffic coming and going. When I noticed a few on the right had made poor choices resulting in an unfortunate altercation. The right lanes almost immediately came to a halt as their sudden loss of momentum caused subsequent accidents. Backing up and in the ditch, the masses stymied and stopped by those decisions. It’s hard to tell if it’s a major accident or a series of minor incidents, nevertheless traffic stacked up. 
Every election, every opportunity to vote, is important. The health of our representative republic is at risk with every election. It isn’t your civic responsibility to vote, it’s a privilege and one which shouldn’t be abused. Our country is based on the principle of an electorate selecting people who best represent their opinions and aspirations. Those representatives are then empowered to make laws in concert with the majority of their constituents, while protecting the rights of the minority.
Fifteen years ago we, collectively and individually, took a knee to pray, in our own way, for those we lost, their families, the country, and the world. We raised our flag and our heads showing the world, and ourselves, we were united and strong.
simplebender 