He has a good script…
“The big deal is this, we are in a global struggle with Russia right now. They are trying to propagate their authoritarian model around the world. They’ve ruined democracy, eliminated most democratic institutions in Russia. They’re trying to dismantle Europe. Liberal Democracy is under assault and we are still the last best hope of Democracy around the world.”
Russia owns the US president
Corollary: Russia also owns the US vice-president.
Agreed.
I think we could count on Australia to be independent.
No, there is nothing they won’t do…as long as the wealthy get a tax cut.
There’s a thing I have pointed out from time to time that we really have to bear in mind over what are certain to be several weeks of escalating political crisis. What you read about in the press from Washington (or, really, the capital of any democracy with a free press) is just the outward face of a fusion of Kabuki, a Japanese theatre form using complex poses and stylized movements to convey messages understandable to astute enthusiasts of the form, but not so much to outsiders, and bunraku, the puppetry with the people in black operating puppets (which, I understand, is derived from kabuki).
Not everything that happens is part of a single purpose or a single plan, and very often you see actors operating at cross purposes and without coordination. But when eleven rather high-powered senators get together to sign a letter like this, and not, say two or forty two, the message is even more about who signed than what the letter said.
And in a case like this, the people who signed this letter are either coordinating with Schumer and leadership, or acting with their tacit blessing, or they’re operating a rogue operation to show displeasure with how leadership is handling things. And if it was the latter, you’d be reading leaks from anonymous sources in the story about the letter saying that.
Just saying that what’s in front of our eyes is always the least important part of the story, the tip of the proverbial iceberg. And we don’t know what shape the rest of the iceberg is or what else is doing on down there, but pretending that the important part is what you see is foolish.
Is this really a good approach?
Trump voters already knew that Trump and Russia were working together. Unless something new drops, they are not exactly going to join the Democrats in opposing Trump. Even the golden shower story wasn’t enough for this.
Russia is certainly a distraction and a black eye, though. But more along the lines of Obama and Guantanamo (so far!).
Am I missing something?