Are they really laying the groundwork for more of the “the Russians did it”? About the previous question, “they” is the Democrats, and “the Russians” are their go-to anytime elections don’t go their way.
This is notable when it’s remembered how very much Democrats revel in asking Republicans if they’ll accept the results of upcoming elections, including November’s presidential election. If Republicans don’t quickly respond with “yes,” it’s said to be a sign they’ll resist what the proverbial scoreboard says, all the while imperiling democracy.
The question that hopefully a few reasonable Democrats will answer is how the inevitable rollout of “Russian disinformation” by Democrats is different from the actions of the Republicans they disdain. Without defending the Republicans (more on them in a bit) if they do as the Democrats always do in attempting to discredit election results they dislike, at least the Republicans fritter away their credibility on the possibility of voter fraud.
Figure that there’s always a case to be made about improper vote counting, dead voters, fake voters, and all manner of other ways to count heads. In other words, any contest decided by a show of hands is inevitably going to be tainted to varying degrees by fraudulent hands. Not so with Russia.
Looking back to 2016 and beyond, Democrats have long revealed how very situational their expressed regard for “democracy” is along with their belief in the sanctity of the vote. And they’ve justified their whiny actions with laughable claims like the one from 2016-? that a few hundred thousand dollars artfully spent on Facebook by Russian agents tipped the 2016 election in the GOP’s favor. Sorry, but such an insinuation is absurd.
As this write-up argued in 2017, Russian officialdom is notoriously incompetent. To then claim that the personification of incompetence could somehow alter national election results thoroughly insulted stupid. Which is seemingly fine with Democrats who’ve long operated as though the American voter is the embodiment of dumb. The alleged Russian hoax vivified the previous truth.
Fast forward to the present, and the Democrats are already laying the groundwork to call into question the results of the upcoming presidential election. Attorney General Merrick Garland has accused two employees of RT (“a state-controlled media outlet” according to CBS) of implementing “a $10 million scheme to fund and direct a Tennessee-based company to publish and disseminate information favorable to the Russian government.” This is the “sophisticated influence campaign” that the Democrats are trying to turn into news, which is a reminder that they still think voters impossibly stupid.
Seriously, who could fall for something so at odds with reality? $10 million to “interfere” with an election that Democrats and Republicans will spend many billions on? Where’s the influence in such an outlay?
Better yet, if there really is a “Tennessee-based company” with the skill to influence a national election with such a microscopic budget, does anyone seriously think “the Russians” would have happened on these geniuses before the Democrats and Republicans with their billions? Efficient market theory says an unattended $20 bill won’t go unclaimed for any reasonable stretch of time, at which point we’re supposed to believe Americans capable of tilting an election for $10 million would go unclaimed and un-hired by those with billions at their disposal? It’s just not serious.
To be fair, it’s similarly not serious for Republicans to call into question a few or a lot of unfavorable election results. As professed believers in limited government, they should be just as thrilled to thwart the growth of government outside of power as they are supposed to be when in power. Put another way, if Republicans truly believe their own limited government rhetoric, it shouldn’t much matter whether they win or lose.
It’s something about gridlock. It’s the best of all worlds, particularly when one Party requiring restraint by gridlock continues to insult reason with laughable notions of “Russian disinformation.”
Republished from RealClear Markets
