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We are infiltrated already [1]

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Date: 2022-10-24

It’s very confusing to a great many people why our political world has changed so much in the last six years. Why so suddenly the hyper-partisanship; the increase in out-group hatred, bigotry, politically motivated violence, lying, corruption and blatant hypocrisy. Many people describe with bewilderment the post 2016 political environment as one in which truth no longer matters.

Donald Trump Jr. began the explanation at a New York real-estate conference in 2008: "In terms of high-end product influx into the US, Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets…Say, in Dubai, and certainly with our project in SoHo, and anywhere in New York. We see a lot of money pouring in from Russia." Mr. Trump senior was groomed by Russia for decades.

Mr. Putin put an army of trolls into our social media environment, influencing votes for Mr. Trump. He helped get Mr. Trump elected. Once elected, Mr. Trump’s obvious affection and admiration for Vladimir Putin was astounding and unprecedented in a US president. Mr. Trump believed Mr. Putin over and above his own intelligence agencies. He did everything Mr. Putin wanted. He alienated our allies and weakened NATO by suddenly pulling 9,500 troops out of Germany and discussing his intention to withdraw from NATO entirely. As John Bolton, Trump’s national security advisor, stated, Mr. Putin was waiting for Mr. Trump to get reelected so Trump could pull the US out of NATO and then Putin could easily take over Ukraine.

Domestically, Mr. Trump divided us, and weakened our faith in democratic institutions such as elections, the free press, the FBI, and the justice department. And if a Putin-style oligarch did manage to get himself elected President, the last thing he would think to do would be to willingly accept election results and give up power. He would instead plot and plan on how to overcome democracy and hold onto it indefinitely.

Under Mr. Trump’s influence a large portion of the Republican party has shifted to a Russian style of politics. In Russia, truth does not matter, the people in power can do whatever they want. Truth doesn’t matter if you have a captive audience, and you control what they see and hear. That is what we are seeing here and now, with MAGA media outlets having so little loyalty to facts. The hyper-partisanship is also made more understandable. In an oligarchy such as Russia, the government does not recognize anything as nonpartisan. Oligarchs see people as either 110% loyal to the government or they see them as the enemy. Before 2016, this was all largely unknown in the US, but in Russia this would be standard operating procedure.

Many different factors facilitated this shift. It happened because of racism. Mr. Putin is white, and our racism became particularly enraged after Mr. Obama, a black man, was elected president. It happened because of fetishizing masculinity and toughness. Mr. Putin is macho, and that became more important to many after gay marriage was legalized. It happened because of pure greed and lust for power, as Putin and his friends have a lot of dollars to throw around after ransacking the Russian economy.

In Russia, newscasters are not there to report the truth, they are there to lie, exaggerate and misinform to manipulate the emotions of listeners in whatever way Mr. Putin wants. This is usually to be disgusted with the West, to feel support for the latest war of aggression, or whatever. In other words, we have those here already, Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson. And Republicans have already said that if elected they will withdraw support for Ukraine.

Going forward, these are not normal times. We need to recognize what has happened and identify it as such. The public needs to hear clearly and repeatedly that we are infiltrated by enemies who seek to destroy our democracy. MAGA is about the very rich and powerful accumulating more and more corrupt control over our government, until we are no longer a democracy, but a Putin-style oligarchy. MAGA=Russia, whether Ron DeSantis or whoever is the public face of this rot.

Those with the public’s ear need to identify what is happening clearly and repeatedly without being afraid of appearing to favor one political party over the other. Was Morrow too politically biased when he took on McCarthyism? What would the country be like if we had not pulled back from that precipice? Were Woodward and Bernstein too politically biased when they exposed Watergate? We became more of a democracy after they did. Democracy is not free, and we need to be brave enough to do what we need to do to keep it.

Bruce Karp, Ph.D.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/10/24/2130928/-We-are-infiltrated-already

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