1. Sublime Patriotism vs Unhinged Zealotry
This is not a thread about The Good vs. The Bad. Here I want to reflect on the need for some societal guardrails to prevent the noble turning into ignoble when in the throes of mindless partisanship.
This is not a thread about The Good vs. The Bad. Here I want to reflect on the need for some societal guardrails to prevent the noble turning into ignoble when in the throes of mindless partisanship.
2. I have written extensively and perhaps more than most on how I believe Trump has been mercilessly and unfairly attacked by the mindlessly partisan Media, Intelligentsia, the Democratic leaders, and even many Republicans, let alone the unhinged Hollywood nincompoops.
3. Still, America (i.e. our ideals embodied in and guided by our Constitution) are far more important than any individual present or past. So throughout the campaign season in 2016, I never ever flinched from entertaining the possibility that Trump's opponents might be right.
4. So for a moment I want to review the various players highlighted in the Nunes Memo through the 2016 lens, to avoid potentially turning heroes into villains retrospectively and unfairly. After all, I don't want to do to them what I have felt they have been doing to Trump.
5. So imagine it is middle of 2016, and based on a whole lot of circumstantial info and the general demeanor of the Trump campaign, people like Comey, McCabe, Ohr, Strzok, et al have no doubt in their minds about a strong possibility of Trump being Putin's Manchurian candidate.
6. Assume in addition that all these players are passionately patriotic imbued with an indomitable spirit to protect and defend America against all enemies foreign and domestic, which is by no means an unreasonable assumption.
7. As a matter of fact, one hopes our country is resplendent with Americans imbued with such spirit, regardless of how petty or ordinary they might otherwise be with regard to hustling for an edge in their day to day endeavors.
8. What would such people do? Or more importantly, what would such people not do in order to prevent Putin from succeeding to install Trump in the White House?
9. They would very much pull out all stops to use every tool at their disposal and push every legal recourse to its breaking point in order to find out what Trump & Putin were up to. In other words, they would do the kind of things they seem to have done.
10. Everything I have said above is a pure conjecture, but not outside the realm of reasonable possibility. Viewed in that light, these folks could be viewed as working heroically, even at great personal risk if found out. You could even call it sublimely patriotic.
11. They listened to Trump campaign conversations, they monitored email traffic, presumably peered into text messages too, day after day, week after week, month after month. And lo and behold, they came up empty.
12. Common sense and nobility at this point demanded that they admitted to themselves they were mistaken, wrapped up their snooping gracefully, shut down the case, and locked it away, potentially never to be revealed to the nation.
13. I have no doubt things like this have happened in our history, and we should be thankful to the people who take great personal risks to protect and defend our nation against all kinds of perils, some of which we the people at large may never come to know about.
14. But that didn't happen. They never wrapped up their operation. They continued even after Trump had won the election, and transitioned right into using these illicit means to undermine his presidency even before he was sworn into office, with Obama seemingly leading the way.
15. And that's the point where, even with the greatest charity in my heart and giving them the hugest benefit of doubt I am capable of giving, I stop. That's the point they turn from sublime patriots (if they ever were to begin with) into unhinged zealots.
16. Starting January 2017, Media and Democratic drumbeat of "Russia Collusion!" unleashed by leaks enabled by Obama deliberately relaxing, via executive order, the rules on sharing classified information within government agencies, has been an unmitigated travesty.
17. And now with a full year of Trump confronting Russia where appropriate, eviscerating ISIS, tax reform, deregulation, and a booming economy (IOW, everything against Putin's interests), one has to be a rabid lunatic to still entertain any thought of "Russia Collusion!"
The END
The END
How ironic, or shall we say poetically just, would it be if the forces unleashed by Obama in order to undermine Trump's presidency, end up undermining his own!
