LOCK THEM UP: Putin's Useful Idiots
One commentator on the already seemingly interminable (Am I the only one who wants to take a three-year nap and wake up just in time to read the book?) Russian interference mess used the amusing phrase "useful idiot." He was suggesting that some of the people in Trump's circle, including the often clueless electoral college President himself, may have inadvertently colluded with Putin. They may be more ignorant than ignominious, more tricked than traitor. I don't think the commentator was suggesting that these foolish people are innocent; he was just suggesting that there might be extenuating circumstances that could shorten their prison sentences. I think that term "useful idiots" can be applied to many Americans outside Trumpland. Putin had almost too much help in his interference with the 2016 election to undermine our democracy. Among Putin's useful idiots, most of whom unfortunately cannot be locked up, are the following:
1) Jill Stein - The Green Party candidate is the only one of my candidates for the Putin's Most Useful Idiot(s) Award who might be locked up. She might be found guilty of colluding with Putin. After all, she was at that RT dinner with Putin and Flynn. And unlike them, she actually took enough votes from Hillary to cost her several key states and possibly the election. Also, why did she ask to recount several of those states after the election? What was her agenda? I initially assumed she felt guilty (as she should) for what she did to the country and was trying to help Hillary. But maybe she was trying to help Putin make us distrust our elections. Trump was certainly planning to claim the election was rigged if he lost. Maybe Stein was going to ask for a recount even if Hillary won. I assume the special prosecutor and Congress will be interviewing Dr. Stein. They need to find out who financed the recount and her campaign. They should follow the green--not the party, but the money.
2) Bernie Sanders - I've told several members of Bernie's cult that he will be viewed as a villain when the history of this period is written. He used a party to which he did not belong to advance his agenda and then attacked that party when he lost the primaries. He also used the leaked-by-Russia- through-WikiLeaks e-mail material to attack the DNC chair, forcing her out at a crucial time during the election. Of course, the party supported the Democrat Hillary over the Independent Bernie, who was not helping them fundraise the way she was. Why shouldn't they? And what would we have learned if the Russians had leaked his campaign's e-mails? Bernie's failure to behave the way Hillary did in 2008 made his followers bitter and angry toward her, thus helping Trump and Putin win. Then he behaved like too many old white men I've encountered in my life and in the media; he blamed Hillary and the Democrats instead of himself and his followers.
3) The media - I've discussed in detail what the media did (make Trump famous, promote his candidacy free for many months, demonize Hillary) and didn't do (demonize Trump for the birther nonsense, take him seriously and vet him the way they did Hillary, Jeb, etc.) in other blog posts.
4) The Republican Leaders - The Republicans who placed power, politics, and party over people and patriotism should be locked up for not protecting the country from a maniac by refusing to nominate him or at the very least refusing to support him as their party's candidate.
5) The Democratic Leaders - The Democrats deserve to have lost power since they allowed an opportunistic socialist Independent to hijack their party and weaken it by attacking its leader and did not make enough noise about the Russians meddling. They should have followed Barney Frank's lead and demonized Bernie as a straight white man who fled diverse New York for lily white Vermont and who was now trying to tell a party led by women, nonwhites, and gays that they were not liberal enough. They should have called him out as the ungrateful, privileged old white man that he is, not content to gain the attention that he wouldn't have gotten if he had run as an Independent but actually wanting to be nominated by a party to which he did not really belong and to which he was not loyal. Did these fools learn nothing from the Joe Lieberman (witchlike, I've resurrected Old Joe by mentioning him too many times lately) mess? And why didn't every Democratic leader who knew about the Russian interference (including Obama and Clinton) talk about it as much as Republicans talked about Benghazi and private e-mail servers? Why do the Democrats worry so much about their image? They need to go low like the Republicans, win by any means necessary.
6) Former FBI Director James Comey - Speaking of people worrying about their image and reputation, Comey should have worried less about what people would think if he made the wrong choice and more about following the rules. He should be happy that the only consequences of his terrible decision to discuss one less important possible criminal investigation while not discussing possible treason are "mild nausea" and unemployment.
7) The so-called reliable pollsters - If Nate Silver and all of the other pollsters had been as accurate in their predictions as Michael Moore and Bill Maher were, Comey would have kept his mouth shut, Americans might have voted more wisely, and the Democrats might have made more noise about the Russian interference. Everyone except Bill, Michael, and Trump's crazy followers assumed that Hillary was going to win. Even the boastful Trump was shocked to find himself President; he still is.
8) The electoral college - The electors who refused to vote for the winner of the popular vote when the loser was insane proved that the only reason to keep the electoral college is so that it can discriminate against urban nonwhites and in favor of small-town whites.
9) The Clinton campaign - Hillary's campaign was much better organized than Trump's and than hers was in 2008. But they made one careless mistake, probably because they foolishly failed to recognize how much Trump's campaign was based on racism. They should not have been hanging with Beyoncé, Jay-Z, and the Obamas the day before the election. They should have just brought out Bruce Springsteen.
10) The voters - Every American citizen who was eligible to vote and either didn't vote, voted for Trump, or voted for someone other than the one sane candidate who could beat Trump was one of Putin's useful idiots.
If we locked up everyone who aided and abetted Putin during the 2016 election, there wouldn't be enough of us left to run the prisons and the country. Let's hope enough of these "useful idiots" have become smart enough, enlightened enough to help the rest of us save the country and improve our so-called democracy. Then they truly will be useful.
1) Jill Stein - The Green Party candidate is the only one of my candidates for the Putin's Most Useful Idiot(s) Award who might be locked up. She might be found guilty of colluding with Putin. After all, she was at that RT dinner with Putin and Flynn. And unlike them, she actually took enough votes from Hillary to cost her several key states and possibly the election. Also, why did she ask to recount several of those states after the election? What was her agenda? I initially assumed she felt guilty (as she should) for what she did to the country and was trying to help Hillary. But maybe she was trying to help Putin make us distrust our elections. Trump was certainly planning to claim the election was rigged if he lost. Maybe Stein was going to ask for a recount even if Hillary won. I assume the special prosecutor and Congress will be interviewing Dr. Stein. They need to find out who financed the recount and her campaign. They should follow the green--not the party, but the money.
2) Bernie Sanders - I've told several members of Bernie's cult that he will be viewed as a villain when the history of this period is written. He used a party to which he did not belong to advance his agenda and then attacked that party when he lost the primaries. He also used the leaked-by-Russia- through-WikiLeaks e-mail material to attack the DNC chair, forcing her out at a crucial time during the election. Of course, the party supported the Democrat Hillary over the Independent Bernie, who was not helping them fundraise the way she was. Why shouldn't they? And what would we have learned if the Russians had leaked his campaign's e-mails? Bernie's failure to behave the way Hillary did in 2008 made his followers bitter and angry toward her, thus helping Trump and Putin win. Then he behaved like too many old white men I've encountered in my life and in the media; he blamed Hillary and the Democrats instead of himself and his followers.
3) The media - I've discussed in detail what the media did (make Trump famous, promote his candidacy free for many months, demonize Hillary) and didn't do (demonize Trump for the birther nonsense, take him seriously and vet him the way they did Hillary, Jeb, etc.) in other blog posts.
4) The Republican Leaders - The Republicans who placed power, politics, and party over people and patriotism should be locked up for not protecting the country from a maniac by refusing to nominate him or at the very least refusing to support him as their party's candidate.
5) The Democratic Leaders - The Democrats deserve to have lost power since they allowed an opportunistic socialist Independent to hijack their party and weaken it by attacking its leader and did not make enough noise about the Russians meddling. They should have followed Barney Frank's lead and demonized Bernie as a straight white man who fled diverse New York for lily white Vermont and who was now trying to tell a party led by women, nonwhites, and gays that they were not liberal enough. They should have called him out as the ungrateful, privileged old white man that he is, not content to gain the attention that he wouldn't have gotten if he had run as an Independent but actually wanting to be nominated by a party to which he did not really belong and to which he was not loyal. Did these fools learn nothing from the Joe Lieberman (witchlike, I've resurrected Old Joe by mentioning him too many times lately) mess? And why didn't every Democratic leader who knew about the Russian interference (including Obama and Clinton) talk about it as much as Republicans talked about Benghazi and private e-mail servers? Why do the Democrats worry so much about their image? They need to go low like the Republicans, win by any means necessary.
6) Former FBI Director James Comey - Speaking of people worrying about their image and reputation, Comey should have worried less about what people would think if he made the wrong choice and more about following the rules. He should be happy that the only consequences of his terrible decision to discuss one less important possible criminal investigation while not discussing possible treason are "mild nausea" and unemployment.
7) The so-called reliable pollsters - If Nate Silver and all of the other pollsters had been as accurate in their predictions as Michael Moore and Bill Maher were, Comey would have kept his mouth shut, Americans might have voted more wisely, and the Democrats might have made more noise about the Russian interference. Everyone except Bill, Michael, and Trump's crazy followers assumed that Hillary was going to win. Even the boastful Trump was shocked to find himself President; he still is.
8) The electoral college - The electors who refused to vote for the winner of the popular vote when the loser was insane proved that the only reason to keep the electoral college is so that it can discriminate against urban nonwhites and in favor of small-town whites.
9) The Clinton campaign - Hillary's campaign was much better organized than Trump's and than hers was in 2008. But they made one careless mistake, probably because they foolishly failed to recognize how much Trump's campaign was based on racism. They should not have been hanging with Beyoncé, Jay-Z, and the Obamas the day before the election. They should have just brought out Bruce Springsteen.
10) The voters - Every American citizen who was eligible to vote and either didn't vote, voted for Trump, or voted for someone other than the one sane candidate who could beat Trump was one of Putin's useful idiots.
If we locked up everyone who aided and abetted Putin during the 2016 election, there wouldn't be enough of us left to run the prisons and the country. Let's hope enough of these "useful idiots" have become smart enough, enlightened enough to help the rest of us save the country and improve our so-called democracy. Then they truly will be useful.
No comments have been added yet.
