The Senate Intelligence Committee is investigating Trump’s campaign connections with Russians. They are traipsing down to the CIA to look at raw intelligence. They will soon hold hearings. Left-wing progressive groups and neocons are united in being anti-Trump and united in trying to make an issue out of these connections. This is all anti-Trump politics. It’s all a witch hunt that’s attempting to thwart Trump, and it’s all beside the point.
This investigation will come to nothing because there is nothing there that affected the election or that will show Russian manipulation of Trump and his entourage. There will be found contacts and communications, and some may be of questionable ethical import, but there won’t be anything that can be shown to have undermined the alleged purity of American democracy. Indeed, the Constitution, the political parties and historical political events have long since undermined democracy here in America to such an extent that the alleged Russian interference is totally meaningless.
This whole avenue is a dead end. It’s totally a web spun in the air without connection to anything that really matters. It’s totally beside the point, which is excessive government power. And frosting on the cake is that we now learn that the DNC hacking and leaks of e-mails could easily have come from disaffected persons belonging to a U.S. intelligence agency who had access to CIA malware that would intentionally leave a Russian footprint.
A secondary and derivative web of nothingness is criticism of Senator Burr’s leadership of the committee. This is heard from the same anti-Trump progressive groups and neocons. Burr hasn’t done anything that justifies his recusal, no more than Flynn did to resign or Sessions to recuse himself. This attack line is coming from Democratic committee members like Charles Schumer and Mark Warner. This is part of a strategy to attack on all fronts. The idea of this attack is to get Burr to recuse himself and to replace him with attack dogs who will be solidly anti-Trump. Again, in the bigger picture, this is beside the point, that point being: What ails America? And what to do about it? Burr’s leadership of this committee is not what ails America.
Are leaks what ails America? Not at all! In the present instance, there are two different aims arising from two different kinds of leaks. One set of leaks aims to topple Trump and his associates. These leaks indicate the power of hidden persons over the course of government. The problem in this case is not that such leaks undermine democracy. The ailment in this case is government power itself, not simply who exercises that power. The federal government and state governments too are way too powerful and oppressive. Even if there were no persons creating leaks to bring down Trump, we’d still face the same ailment, which is government having powers to do far too much. This type of leak is not what ails America.
The other set of leaks, those found through Wikileaks and most recently revealing the massive CIA hacking tools, has the aim of revealing uses and abuses of government power. Are these leaks what ails America? Certainly not! Anyone who focuses on the leaks as crimes and doesn’t focus on what they show about the CIA and our government is failing to get at the real and important issue: excessive government power. This power has been undermining freedom and property rights, peace and prosperity for decades. This power is what is destroying this country.
The CIA and/or other intelligence agencies are connected to both kinds of leaks. The coup against Trump indicates the strong power lodged in deep state personnel who possess information. However, do not overlook other power sources. As progressive groups mobilize throughout America to resist Trump and influence political outcomes, that face of excessive government power is made evident. Grass-roots democracy is as oppressive and over-reaching as a deep state.
10:09 am on March 12, 2017
