The United States has entered a strange new world. Americans have never been here before because they have never had a president like this before. Michael Harris writes:
In the wake of the Surrender Summit, the president was variously called: a bumbling ingenue; a psychiatric study; a preposterous liar; a useful idiot; a national disgrace; a Putin groupie; a Russian intelligence asset; and a presidential traitor.
Some of these epithets were hurled at him by members of his own party.
It was a real life play -- a 21st Century version of The Comedy of Errors:
Standing beside Vladimir Putin this week, Trump once again chose Putin’s denial of interfering in the 2016 election over the documented conclusions of his own intelligence agencies.
Although Trump had been briefed in detail on the recent indictment of 12 Russian intelligence officers who hacked into the election, he spoke of Putin’s “strong” and “powerful” denial. He even said that he couldn’t think of any reason Russia “would” do such a thing, a deadly ad lib that clearly threw American intelligence under the bus.
Both Republican congressional leaders, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan, rebuked their leader. Dan Coats, Trump’s national intelligence director, flatly contradicted the president in a statement not vetted by the White House: without doubt, and despite Putin’s lies, Russia had hacked the 2016 U.S. election. American intelligence, Coats said, was dead right in its assessment and would continue to burrow into Russia’s continuing attacks on the United States.
Thus was born the “double-negative” defence. Faced with wildfires raging in Congress and a curtain of smoke rising from his hitherto non-flammable base, Trump’s team made him read what they hilariously billed as a “clarification.”
Here’s how it worked. Where Trump had in reality said the word “would” in his Helsinki comments, the president now said he had actually meant to say he couldn’t think of any reason why Russia “wouldn’t” have done the hacking.
It was the full whiplash for Trumpland.
And the Republicans bought it. Conservative foreign affairs analyst Max Boot wrote in The Washington Post that the Republicans had gone from "criticising useful idiots to being useful idiots."
Which raises the question: "How many useful idiots are there in the United States?"
Image: National Review
18 comments:
All of this is so plain to see, Owen, but both the 'restraining'powers of the U.S. legislative arm and the massive Trump base lustily cheer on their perfidious leader. It is discouraging beyond words.
The Emperor truly has no clothes, Lorne. But he and his followers cheerfully ignore the embarassing truth.
How many useful idiots in the US? About 40% of Americans continue to cling to Trump like limpets. There's your answer.
Cap
Babel revisited.
Cheeto Benito got only 23.4% of the electorate.
Because of "reasons", that's enough.
Survey says, he's dropped down to 17%, probably not enough.
One only has to look at the downward trend in voter participation, Owen, to see how one dimensional parties come to power. Here in BC, my son's view was that rural ridings voted for right wing parties and urban were more centre and somewhat left. Because of the distribution of ridings, the concept of one man - one vote takes on a whole new meaning because ridings are created by area rather than population (in the interests of fairness, of course). This has not stopped the gerrymandering that goes on when changes are made to voting boundaries.
The same thing has happened in the US but it is the Electoral College calculation that compounds the problem. Trump appears to have a massive base, but that is only because of the distribution of Electoral College determination, not the result of popular vote.
The 2016 proved that one again, but it certainly appears moderate Repubs are so afraid of losing their gravy train, they will not oppose the radical side of their party. This, in a country that has bragged for many years about having the world's "greatest" democracy.
Guffaw!!! I think the world is now learning this is indeed a fallacy.
That's what the polls tell us, Cap. And it's a truly frighening number -- because it's enough people to win an election.
Succintly put, Toby. And a warning of what lies ahead.
What is so frustrating, Jay, is that he won with less than a quarter of the electorate. Staying home during an election has consequences.
Democracies are judged by how they count the votes, Luylymay. After all, Putin has always won by massive majorities.
The Republicans wilted immediately they saw that Trump's base remained intact. Then they reverted to Trump's cowed little Congressional minions. Mid-terms are a little more than four months off. Ryan is leaving, McConnell still seeks the safety of his shell. No courage there. Those who do stand up to Trump know they'll be picked off, one by one.
They really are a spineless lot, Mound. They deserve the moniker some members of the press have given them -- "Vichy Republicans."
Gerrymandering, voter surpression, the Senate, buncha stuff,
Ford's numbers wern't much better.
Precisely, Jay. The imbalances that gave the United States Donald Trump gave Ontario Doug Ford. During the PC leadership race, Ford didn't win the popular vote. The way the votes were waited gave him the leadership.
.. months back, I retweeted a startling article .. which I believed was penned by Robert Reich.. Its possible I was mistaken but it was a brilliant political analysis based on statistics, party memberships. the reality (and I must generalize without finding it) is Republicans by 'preference' or birth in the USA are a distinct minority.. and the actual Party membership even far lower. The difference is they got their vote out in 2016 and will again.. and the Russian effort in swing states was brilliant. Someday someone will match and align election media buys (and donorship $) to extremely marginal Elector College 'wins'. Currently 'for Trump' Republican states are wiping vast numbers of blacks and minorities off the voting rolls for midterms.. and gerrymandering for electoral fraud has been OK'd by Supreme Court .. burning of ballots to y'say ? ! Riddle me this !
It's no secret that Republican -- and Russian efforts -- did a lot to surpress votes in key states, sal. There is one axiom that still remains true: Everything depends on turnout -- and how well that turnout is surpressed.
Which raises the question: "How many useful idiots are there in the United States?"
To which the answer is lots.
If the USA's elected and electorate had any sense of decency Trump would have gone by now.
It does not bode well for mankind that a military super power such as the USA cannot come to terms with the likes of Trump.
One can only conclude that millions of Americans are as delusional as Trump is.
This will not end well...
TB
I agree, TB. Ignorance cause ripples that are felt by present and future generations.
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