Progressive media outlets have been feeding the “resist we much” mobs since President Trump’s election, and one of their favorite lines of attack has been hammering the Russia “collusion” / “hacking” non-story. Recently, however, progressive sites have been warning against pursuing it . . . even as Democrat politicians stay focused on it, seemingly to the exclusion of all else. As Comey gets ready to testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee, it will be interesting to see how this all plays out.
Among those calling for Democrats to pivot away from “the Russia story” are the editor and publisher of The Nation, the Daily Kos, the Young Turks. What is not entirely clear is why they are urging this shift after spending so much devoted, almost single-mindedly, to it.
The Nation‘s editor and publisher Katrina Vanden Huevel states that she thinks the focus on Russia may distract from their ability to combat the rest of Trump’s agenda. She notes, too, that the left has become too hyperbolic about Trump administration or campaign officials meeting with Russians.
The Nation’s editor and publisher Katrina Vanden Huevel warned that Democrats’ obsession about Russia was a mistake and could torpedo efforts to effectively combat the Trump agenda. Granted, the latter part is typical run-of-the-mill progressive talk, The Nation is a left wing magazine, but in March, Vanden Huevel ripped into Democrats for the Neo-McCarthyite furor that has engulfed the party over Russia.She noted that Russian interference during the 2016 election needs to be investigated, but the political Left has devolved into thinking that mere meetings with Russian officials are akin to treason.
Not only is this nonsensical, but it is self-defeating. Not noted by Hueval is that their hand-wringing and clothes-rending over things like Flynn sitting next to Putin at a formal event—a table at which 2016 Green Party candidate Jill Stein was also sitting—doesn’t just distract from the “resistance’s” anti-Trump agenda, but it also makes them less credible.
The Daily Kos sounded the alarm last month, stating that the focus on Russia was going to hurt Democrat prospects in 2018.
Russia is a critical story. But it’s not the story that affects America’s dinner table, health, or financial well-being. Many of us in the liberal intelligentsia love the intricacies of this story. After all, who would believe that the Republican leadership would be so soft on their patriotism that they’re willing to put their heads in the sand and play dumb?. . . . The Trump voter knew that Trump had some relationship with the Russians. In fact, Fox News and Republicans were praising Vladimir Putin as a better leader than President Obama. The Trump voter saw a candidate who refused to criticize Putin, regardless of whatever vile act he committed.. . . . In watching the hyperventilation on Russia, it is clear that progressives are repeating the same mistakes of the last several elections that have decimated the Democratic bench throughout the states and in the federal government. The people’s party, the Democrats, are out of step with the people.
They’re not wrong.
The Washington Post notes that reporters such as Max Blumenthal and the Young Turks’ Michael Tracey are putting pressure on Democrat politicians regarding their fixation on the Russia story.
Blumenthal directly asks Jamie Raskin (D-MD) if he’s been feeding lies to progressive journalists and bloggers.
Rep. Jamie B. Raskin (D-Md.) strolled offstage and straight into quicksand. Max Blumenthal, a dogged reporter working with the Baltimore-based Real News Network, brought Raskin on camera to ask what, exactly, Democrats wanted to know.
“We need an independent commission to get all the facts,” Raskin said, offering the litany of possible Trump-Russia ties that he’d given to progressive and mainstream media for months.
Blumenthal wasn’t sold. “You said that Russia attempted to hack [Emmanuel] Macron in the French elections,” he said.
“Well, we know that!” said Raskin.
“The Washington Post has reported that the French cyber-intelligence agency has said that it’s not true,” said Blumenthal.
“Well, certainly, Macron was convinced of it,” said Raskin.
“It was reported days ago,” said Blumenthal.
For four minutes, until the congressman was pulled away by a staffer, an award-winning journalist with bylines at the Nation and Salon asked whether he’d been telling bellicose lies about Russia and the Trump team. “Why aren’t we talking about jobs or racism?” Blumenthal asked.
. . . . Michael Tracey, a reporter for the Young Turks news network who had Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) push past him after he asked skeptical Russia questions, asked why Democrats were so satisfied to keep searching for a smoking gun that never appears.
“This whole issue has been characterized from this lurching, ramping up of expectations that the smoking gun will be discovered imminently,” said Tracey. “That’s how this story has played out. It’s sort of monomaniacal.”
Tracey’s question regarding the reason Democrat politicians are so intent to keep the Russia story alive may have been answered by Red State.
Right now the Democrats are raising money off this meme. They will continue to raise money off it as the investigation pays out. In the end, when nothing is uncovered, they will raise money off the GOP tools, like Comey, who led the investigation. They will gamble that outrage will generate income and tribalism will prevent any price being extracted at the polls.
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