RussiaGate

Quora Answer : Does the DemocraticParty elite help GOP to degrade the country's social achievements?

Jul 3, 2018

RussiaToday is a Russian propaganda site.

It does do a useful job of giving Western dissidents and internal critics a platform to speak on. I value it for that. And I'm a fan of NoamChomsky. I think he's justified in taking advantage of the opportunity RT gives him to get his message out.

But we shouldn't underestimate that RT is also there to serve the Russian interest and to stir up strife and dissent in the West.

So when I read that article, I read that Chomsky made some sensible criticism of the Democrats' over-emphasis on Russia, and RT is spinning this as a story about how "the great Chomsky" says that poor Russia is innocent and Establishment Democrats are aiding Donald Trump.

So ... controlling for the obvious spin and distortions that RT is going to put on what Chomsky says, is the basic story correct?

Yes. Of course.

The obsession with "Russiagate" is a displacement activity that is stopping the Democrats coming to terms with the fact that they so misjudged and misplayed the 2016 election that they actually lost the country to Donald Trump.

They royally fucked up. Colossal time. On that.

Claims that Trump "cheated" and won "illegitimately" are a way of salving wounded pride and disappointment. Some Democrats are hoping that lawfare is a way to bring down Trump. Even to see him "get his comeuppance". Revenge for the pain they feel.

I'm sure those human feelings are in play. But worse than all this, the focus on Russia is a displacement from thinking about the really hard question : "what is the Democratic Party for?"

Democrats obsess about how bad Donald Trump is, and how much they are NOT like Trump, because they aren't quite able to conceptualize or articulate what else they are.

During the campaign, the Democrats evolved into the "We're not Trump" party, partly because they were seduced into thinking they could win a chunk of centrist Republicans who didn't really like Trump. And partly because, having been, at least notionally, "in charge" for the preceding eight years, they didn't have much of an answer for people who were dissatisfied with the status quo and wanted an outsider to shake things up.

The grand failure of the Democratic party "machine" was to not diagnose this dissatisfaction with "business as usual" and address it. Instead, the machine chose Hillary, the ultimate "insider", viscerally connected with both Bill Clinton's administration and Obama's.

This may have been simple blindness. Self-delusion.

But more worrying, it's also because the Democrats are compromised. They take huge amounts of money from corporate donors they need to keep sweet. Top Democrats have friends on Wall Street and in Silicon Valley. The people at the top of the party like the status quo. They aren't trying to turn things upside down.

So the Democrats have been chasing the Republicans rightwards for 30 years. By the time it came to Hillary's turn, they had no radical or overtly pro- working class policies at all. And a candidate who couldn't even fake that she had. They ran 100% as the party of the self-satisfied Establishment and the people in American society who'd done OK in the neoliberal period.

This left the field wide open for a maverick right-wing play to grab the working class's attention and excite it.

Every hour that the Democrats spend decrying Trump's awfulness. Every minute talking about how Russia "hacked the election". Is another hour the party is spending NOT facing and addressing its own problems. Not thinking about what it actually offers the working class in exchange for their votes. Not thinking about what values and policies it needs to be developing to win future elections.

"Trump is terrible" is a failed policy. "We are NOT Trump" isn't even a policy at all.

Trump is delivering for his fans. As long as he gives the various bases in his coalition something to feel good about, they'll stick with him. And all the "dodgy connections" in his campaign and personal indiscretions will be ignored.

The US can't afford to be led by another four years of Trump. It's time to for the Democrats to get their assess in gear and figure out what the party is for, who it's meant to be serving and how to appeal to them beyond "we're just not as bad as that horrible guy". All the energy spent decrying Trump's Russian connections and his personal obnoxiousness is energy that should be spent on those questions.