Good grief the list is long, the Trump campaign is almost comical at this moment in time. Whether Bob and Chez are correct that this is the short-fingered vulgarian's way of setting up a big comeback in the greatest reality show his incurious, lazy mind can dream up so the media will have a story for their "Trump rebound" narrative, or they really are the incompetent neophytes they look like is almost irrelevant. I hope beyond hope that it is the latter and the trend until election day really is American voters coming to their senses but if it isn't then we are in real danger. I speak of course about Russia.
American history has basically been the story of what happens when a nation is removed from serious outside threats from hostile nation-states. Our bloodiest war has been with ourselves and since The War of 1812 the U.S. has not been invaded by a major power. America has subjected other neighboring states to invasion, intimidation, or other interventions but the shoe has never really been on the other foot. Americans cannot understand, by and large, what it means to have your way of life threatened by a hostile power. Nuclear annihilation was a possibility but that is too big for anyone to really comprehend. The attacks of 9/11 gave us a glimpse into the reality other nations face and what could happen, but now that fifteen years have passed is not a living threat.
In a superpower with no real rivals, Hollywood has had to invent a North Korea that could invade the U.S. We are so far removed from imagining ourselves attacked, invaded, occupied, and actually losing our freedoms to a foreign power that Trump felt comfortable in acting as though his friend Vladimir Putin is a viable ally in his quest for the presidency. Whether calling for Russia to hack his opponent was just another childish bully taunt or Trump really is a captive or even willing vassal of Russian oligarchs and under orders from their president, the man is a menace and cannot be allowed near the oval office.
Jane Meyer wrote of the frustration many of us feel, while bloggers like me usually feel left out and powerless when watching events unfold after Trump made his plea to Russia to "find [Hillary's] emails" even sitting Democratic Senators were left wringing their hands in futility. Was this gaffe simply a "wild serve" that is either "so wild it was hard to tell if it was a mistake or a deliberate attempt to destabilize all of the accepted rules of the game". We mere citizens will probably never know. Even if American intelligence agencies actually find out the depth of collusion between Trump and Putin they are unlikely to tell us.
But now that the pandora's box of potential treason is open due to Trump's blab, no one can afford to ignore what this potential fascist dictator could do. I noticed several #NeverHillary types who have now thrown their hero under the bus refuse to admit even the possibility that Russian intelligence was behind the hack of DNC servers. They were far more interested in the content of the handful of emails that showed some staffers not warming up to Bernie Sanders, because, again they just couldn't drop their partisanship for the good of the country. The hacking isn't proven as yet, though the experts report that the possibility is very strong. The #Bernieorbust people were spoiled little children before, now that they side with Russia de facto in order to smear Hillary Clinton they have disqualified themselves from ever being taken seriously again. Ignoring such an attack on our sovereignty because you are too stupid to see past the three decade smear campaign against Secretary Clinton is a grave breach of ethics.
After this gaffe, the ties Paul Manafort of Trump's campaign has to Russia, the fact that Trump refuses to release his tax returns become not simply incompetence or the kind of bullying hypocritical behavior that says this candidate is above the law but evidence that the whole Trump campaign is an attempt to put a Russian puppet in the White House. What limit could there be to Trump's treachery? He would certainly bankrupt the federal government, waste military resources on futile adventures, open us to radical Islamic terrorism, and severely disrupt the economy. What else could a hostile power want? The open declaration of betraying allies? Oops, that box is checked too. Jane Meyer should interview Thomas Madden for more precedents of when an Empire of Trust begins to crack at its foundations. The ancient Romans may not have understood cyber warfare, but they definitely understood treason, political polarization, the threats that undermining alliances entailed, and how upstart populist demagogues can sweep the imaginations of the angry dispossessed masses into power.
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