Donald Trump is out to lunch
We are faced with a “President” who is out to lunch and a federal government that has given up on any kind of semblance of responsibility to organize a defense to the Russian hacking and interference in our democratic process. There is no response from the President, who does not seem to care or is looking the other way when it comes to Russia and Putin. He’d rather start trade wars with Canada and Europe or engage in a Twitter war with a comedian than to take measures in securing our next elections!
Trump is unwilling to confront Russia and make Putin accountable for his misdeeds and transgressions against our country. It’s inconceivable and unacceptable that this not a priority to this administration and there is no policy put forth. Thirteen Russian nationals and three Russian entities were indicted by a grand jury, and not a word from Trump.
The indictment revealed a professional, savvy network organized to sabotage the 2016 election and to support the Trump campaign. They created a vast web of operatives working from an office in St. Petersburg who bombarded the feeds of American social media users with falsehoods and lies. Many Americans believed the stories in their feeds and in turn presumably threw support behind Trump in the election battleground states of WI, MI, PA, FL, etc. Russian moles stole identities of American citizens, posed as political activists and used divisive points on immigration, economy, religion, guns and race to manipulate a campaign in which those issues were already particularly explosive. Yet there has been no outrage from this President, no outrage from the Secretary of Defense, and none from others within this derelict administration.
Trump did put out a statement basically exonerating himself from these indictments and completely ignoring the U.S. intel community’s conclusion that by 2016 the Russians were “supporting the presidential campaign of then-candidate Donald J. Trump” and disparaging his opponent Hillary Clinton and waging “information warfare against the United States of America.”
Our 50 states are awesomely vulnerable to another attack and are trying to take preventative measures within their local election commissions, but do not have enough resources nor access to the latest technology.This ought to be a national priority and policy.
Congress too, seems to be paralyzed on the issue. Republican Senators and Congressman are always deflecting from the Russia situation, spinning the FBI findings and indictments, as if buying time to do nothing to secure our electoral integrity and hold Russia accountable for its attack on our Democracy. They claim to be be the party of national security. One must ask why is this going on?
Is it because the Republicans view the status quo of inaction as favorable to them, or is it because they too were involved in the collusion? There are major media reports that Mitch McConnell refused to release important information on Russian espionage during the 2016 campaign, threatening to accuse President Obama of politicizing the issue. Time will tell how this plays out while Robert Mueller is still in the midst of his investigation, but regardless of his findings, we as a country must demand from our elected officials to take immediate steps to assure security and integrity of our elections later this year. I hope we still have a government for the people.
Marilyn is an immigrant, artist, painter and writer, passionate advocate for equality and human rights. Loves history, politics and travel. Resident of Colorado.