We Have Met The Enemy And He Is Us

Allegations that Russia is still “attacking” US elections, now again in November, could delegitimize our democratic institutions.

Summarizing one of the themes in his new book, ‘War with Russia? From Putin and Ukraine To Trump and Russiagate,’ Stephen F. Cohen argues that Russiagate allegations of Kremlin attempts to “undermine American democracy” may themselves erode confidence in those institutions.

Ever since Russiagate allegations began to appear more than two years ago, their core narrative has revolved around purported Kremlin attempts to “interfere” in the 2016 US presidential election on behalf of then-candidate Donald Trump. In recent months, a number of leading American media outlets have taken that argument even further, suggesting that Putin’s Kremlin actually put Trump in the White House and now is similarly trying to affect the November 6 midterm elections, particularly House contests, on behalf of Trump and the Republican Party. According to a page-one New York Times “report,” for example, Putin’s agents “are engaging in an elaborate campaign of ‘information warfare’ to interfere with the American midterm elections.”

Despite well-documented articles by Gareth Porter and Aaron Mate effectively dismantling these allegations about 2016 and 2018, the mainstream media continues to promote them. The occasionally acknowledged lack of “public evidence” is sometimes cited as itself evidence of a deep Russian conspiracy, of the Kremlin's “arsenal of disruption capabilities... to sow havoc on election day.”

Lost in these reckless allegations is the long-term damage they may themselves do to American democracy.

You can read the rest @
https://www.rt.com/op-ed/442943-russia-midterms-meddling-democracy-cohen/

This whole mess seems to have sprung from the sick mind of Hillary Clinton. If you seek a single suspect to blame, she appears to be it.

By the way, here is the Pogo cartoon which introduced the title quote. Take note it refers to environmental issues which have only gotten worse since it was published: