Whatever happened to those ‘Question Authority’ and ‘Dissent is the Highest Form of Patriotism’ bumper stickers that flourished on liberals’ cars during the dark days of George W.’s administration?
Now, in the waning days of a Dem presidency, a touching trust in the judgment of the president is in evidence on the left. On today’s Morning Joe, Prof. Eddie Glaude Jr., chair of Princeton’s African-American studies department, said he is “struck” that anyone would question President Obama’s judgment that sanctions against Russia are warranted. After all, argued Glaude, the president “has sworn to protect this country.”
There are two parts to the question here. One is whether the hacking actually occurred. President-elect Trump will be fully briefed on the matter this week, and in a Morning Joe appearance today, Trump White House spokesman-designee Sean Spicer said Trump is open to accepting the conclusion that Russia did indeed hack.
The second is whether the sanctions imposed by Obama were proportional. Spicer pointed out that when China hacked the most personal information of millions of federal employees, the Obama admin never uttered a peep of protest against China and imposed no sanctions. It’s only response was to offer one-year of free credit monitoring to people whose personal data had been hacked.
Spicer wondered out loud whether the alacrity and extent of the Russia sanctions were not politically inspired, in response to Hillary’s defeat. But that kind of thinking would be “bizarre” in Glaude’s view.
Donald Trump will also swear to protect this country. Will Professor Glaude be so ready to accept the national security judgments of the president come January 20th, or are he and his cohorts on the left dusting off those old bumper stickers even as we speak?
EDDIE GLAUDE JR.: What I’m really struck by in the conversation is that the President of the United States, the person who has sworn to protect this country, has decided, based on the intelligence that he has received, that sanctions are warranted. And we are questioning, right, whether or not that is true. Whether or not the Russians have actually impacted our elections. The President of the United States has received the intelligence and has acted on it. So the actual act of questioning whether or not it happened, and all, it just seems to me really bizarre.
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