Short diary, and no links. We don’t need them. The front page and rec list are teeming with one revelation after another. The Russians gamed the shit out of this election starting in at least 2015, according to the Butina charging documents. Trump, his campaign, and the GOP knowingly collaborated with the Russians to sabotage the election and defraud the American people.
Here’s some things that we either know through evidence, or have strong reason to believe are true:
- The Russians hacked the DNC, the Clinton campaign, and the RNC. They manipulated, edited, and fabricated some of the material they found. They selectively distributed it through DC Leaks, Guccifer 2.0, and WikiLeaks, after that organization offered its services. The distribution was coordinated with the Trump campaign. (Presumably they are holding on to the RNC material for kompromat purposes; it was never made public.)
- The Russians funneled unknown amounts of money into the Trump campaign via the NRA. Trump bragged about the lack of need to fundraise. Now we know why.
- The Trump campaign used the data analytics stolen from the DNC and the campaign to reorient their campaign activities in the final eight weeks. We knew at the time that the Trump campaign was suddenly flooding money and organizational actions into radically different areas of the country than had previously been anticipated. We thought they were floundering around like beached fish. Nope. They knew what the Clinton campaign was planning and they countered it.
- The Russians hacked the voting machines and changed the voting totals. This is the biggest thing that remains to be proven. Mueller may or may not have conclusive evidence of this. My biggest reason for believing it happened is the obstinate denials from Trump that any such thing took place. There is also fragmentary evidence that such vote tally alterations may have been made. If you want to put an asterisk by anything on this list, this is the one.
So. Given all of this, here’s another bullet list for you.
- It’s time to stop blaming Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, and their campaigns and supporters, for the loss. Period. I know Clinton ran a “safe” and bland campaign. I know Sanders’s guys got hold of some Clinton campaign data. I know some of us think Robbie Mook is a yutz, and some others think Tad Devine might have some secret connections to Paul Manafort. It’s arguable that Clinton should have chosen Sanders for VP instead of the safe, bland Tim Kaine. It’s arguable that Sanders could have campaigned more enthusiastically for Clinton. Hillary wink-winked and nudge-nudged with fatcats on Wall Street. Some Bernie caucus goers got rowdy. Yeah, fine, whatever. Put that shit to bed. It’s time to be done with all of it. All of that pales in comparison to what Trump and the Russians did. It’s like saying Bill Belichick is some kind of fuckhead because his Patriots get their asses handed to them by the Houston Texans even after we learn the Texans stole the Patriots’ playbook. Actually, it’s far worse than that lame analogy.
- We pull together in 2018 and 2020, or we lose. Period. I don’t care if you think Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is the standard-bearer for a more progressive Democratic Party, or if you think Conor Lamb and Doug Jones, in all their moderate glory, should be the new party leaders. I don’t care if you want Sanders to run in 2020, or Joe Biden, or a little red hen. It. Doesn’t. Matter. We pull together NOW, and we keep pulling together going forward, or we won’t have a democracy over which to argue.
- People who try to divide us from within must be shunned. No, I’m not talking about people who argue about the spectrum of ideology within the Democratic Party boundaries, or whether we should be a more progressive, or more moderate, party. I don’t care whether one of us thinks social issues and “identity politics” (never liked that term) is more important than environmental issues, or whatever. We are a site dedicated to electing more and better Democrats, and there’s nothing wrong with saying, say, Kevin De Leon is a better choice for the Senate over Dianne Feinstein, or vice versa. Both arguments have merit, and both arguments are coming from a place that wants to improve the party and (much more importantly) the lives of our citizens. But the Democratic Party, and the millions of people that comprise it, are the political venue with which to overturn Republican-Russian control of the United States. That’s us. People who harangue about “both parties are just alike” and “the only way to save our political system is to burn it down and rebuild it from the ground up” are NOT are allies and, worse, are contributing to the Trump-Putin takeover of America. Many of them are sincere in what they believe. They don’t want fascism and autocracy any more than you or I do. But for now, they have to put aside their larger goals of a governmental do-over and stand with the rest of us in resisting autocracy and rescuing the democracy we have. Susan Sarandon might think that the GOP’s attempt to start the Fourth Reich in America will result in ashes from which a new and shiny paradigm will emerge. History proves her wrong. It won’t happen that way. We have to fight for what we have, and we have to do it together.
Bernie was right. We can build a future to believe in. And Hillary was right. We are stronger together. We either join forces up and down the Democratic/liberal/progressive spectrum to resist, to overcome, to rebuild, and to move forward, or we get the jackboots in our faces. Like the 2016 presidential election, it’s a binary choice.