Terrell Jermaine Starr, writing forThe Root, offers a glimpse into the mentality of an ordinary, rank and file GOP voter:
Florine Gruen Goldfarb loves America. She is a real, down-home patriot. So much so that she unwittingly promoted Russian-coordinated events on Facebook in support of Donald Trump. Goldfarb, who runs the Team Trump Broward County Facebook page, was one of the 53 percent of white women who backed Trump in 2016 and likely didn’t need Russia’s help to do it. But CNN reports that she did, in fact, promote pro-Trump events that were encouraged by Russian trolls on Facebook.
“I don’t care if they were involved or not,” she told a CNN reporter when confronted about her involvement in Russia-backed events organized by the Being Patriotic Facebook page. “That’s the least important thing.”…
That really is the important thing. This patriotic American is not the least bit concerned that she has allied herself with a foreign adversary:
When the reporter told her the group was Russian-backed, she denied it—after saying she didn’t care if Russia was involved or not. “I don’t go with the Russians,” she said. Goldfarb said all the people at her meetings were Trump supporters. That’s the thing, though. Russia didn’t create fake events. They simply found real Trump supporters and backed their cause. CNN reported that Goldfarb and other Trump backers in Florida were duped into believing they were communicating electronically and over the phone with other Trump supporters. Often, they were speaking to Russians willing to offer financial and logistical support.
It’s one thing to write these folks off as dupes. Well, because they are most assuredly dupes.
But the thing that should trouble us all is the fact that fellow Americans (using the term fellow Americans rather loosely, given the context) do not see the influence campaign by Russia, the (successful) efforts to install a puppet regime in the oval office, as problematic.
Still, the lack of self-awareness that a person like Goldfarb displays is breathtaking:
When the CNN reporter probed her about her communications with Russians connected to Being Patriotic, she denied it and said, “Hillary Clinton was and so was her bandits, Mueller.”
Bandit is not a term you hear in the American vernacular every day, but it is commonly used to describe criminals in Russia. Even in Ukraine, where I visit often, the word “bandit” is commonly used to describe criminals. I highly suspect that while Goldfarb may not have met with Russians in person, she may have picked up the word from conversing with Russians electronically or over the phone. Again, I don’t know, but I suspect this may be the case.
Autocratic regimes require legions of unquestioning adherents. The GOP has them.
Elections have consequences. (выборы имеют последствия)