Let’s get this out of the way first, the USA interferes in elections around the world, we all know that. Not just with some fb posts but with crippling sanctions and blockades, support of rebellious insurgency groups, all out war and of course social media manipulations.
Perhaps it might make sense and actually be helpful if we were to focus on our own corruption and international meddling before or at least simultaneously with our condemnation of Russian interference.
Being drastically more guilty of international election interference than any other nation makes it impossible for the US to lead or to participate in or to even criticize election interference, without hypocrisy, any international efforts to curb outside election interference.
If the American public is so uninformed or ignorant or prejudiced that it can be so easily swayed by Russian bots that our elections are not secure, then we have failed, and I believe we have failed, as a nation, in properly educating and informing our citizens. We cannot blame Russia for that.
There are at least two reasons for this failure; unregulated corporate media which constantly avoids certain issues and certain voices while oftentimes promoting outright lies and an inadequate public education system from top to bottom.
Both problems are easily remedied by a nation that honestly wishes good upon itself.
The Russian scapegoating, rather than helping in this time of political crises, is furthering the collapse of the American society by misinforming the public as to our real and urgent problems in our elections and by removing the incentive for addressing those real problems. This being the usual function of a scapegoat, deflection from ones own failures.
At the same time we add support to and build on the theory of our failure and of our inadequacy and disrupted nature in not being able to withstand something as simple as Russian interference which again contributes to the debilitated spirit of the Nation, like a snowball coming down the hill.
It’s not that countries don’t try to influence and manipulate outcomes in America, of course they do but this is not what is really harming our country’s elections, either the process or the outcomes.
Our problem is in the quality and corruption of our candidates and their inability to truly inspire voters. Our problem is gerrymandering, voter suppression, questionable voting machines, the electoral college, corporate sponsored political parties and debates, lack of ranked choice voting, etc., etc.
Our problems then, when we get down to it, are self-inflicted problems that Russia played no part in. Building a nation that people can believe in, that they are not ashamed of, by rooting out the corruption that clearly exists in our own political systems and processes is what is needed. Public participation is what is needed. A government that inspires public participation is what is needed.
The kind of Russiaphobia that we are seeing is not what we need. It has truly taken on the kind of traits associated with McCarthyism, inquisitions and real life historically documented witch-hunts where simply pointing a finger along with an accusation is enough to disrupt, damage or ruin someone’s life whether the accusation is true or not.
If we in the US wish to save ourselves, our country and our elections we need look no further than to the edges of our own borders for real solutions and remedies. We with our negligent attitude toward our own corruption, toward our self-inflicted dysfunction is what is bringing the US down and blaming scapegoats without addressing these real problems only makes the matter that much worse by burying our true needs and challenges under piles of Russians.
Ironic it is that the one who warned us of this tendency towards self destruction, besides of course the founders of the country, was Russian premier Nikita Khrushchev.
We really need to pull ourselves together and quit chasing after the lesser evils.
