Democrats’ Tactic of Accusing Critics of Kremlin Allegiance Has Long, Ugly History in U.S.

[prehnite]

A frequent weapon for Democrats in the 2016 election is to publicly malign those they regard as critics and adversaries as Russia sympathizers, Putin stooges, or outright agents of the Kremlin. To put it mildly, this is not a new tactic in U.S. political discourse, and it’s worth placing it in historical context. That’s particularly true given how

Comments

[roseembolism]

Learn to use a LJ-cut BEFORE posting your huge articles. I thought that was a basic requirement for posting here- on on LiveJournal in general.

As for the article? Meh. It really needed an editor willing to use a delete key like a hedge-trimmer. I certainly hope they weren't paying by the word. I suppose the basic idea is that if they enough word salad out there, nobody will notice the basic dodgy logical argument underlying the piece.

[roseembolism]

I thought it was too obvious to mention that "A is superficially similar to B, therefore it is B, and let's ignore any evidence about A" is crap logic.

Seriously, this is at the level of "The TRUTH about Area 51" level of diatribe. If this is the best the pro-Trump people can do, they really need to pick up their game.

[arisma]

Now that the GOP is operating as a pre-school it should be FINE that the Dems are acting like kindergartners.

[lone_concertina]

That's exactly what it feels like. Between that, the weird jingoistic convention, and their boner for calling people Putin puppets, I'm curious if the Democratic Party is starting to undergo the idealogical shift that the Republican Party went through in the early part of last century. Like, they'll slowly start absorbing disaffected Republicans, then Democrats become right-wing and a new progressive party takes over the actual left.

[shanrina]

I've been worried about this for awhile, since it seems like a lot of Republicans who left the party haven't really changed their beliefs much (economically, at least--maybe a little bit socially) and will probably vote in more conservative Dems over time. I didn't notice it so much in 2012 (and definitely not in 2008, since Obama's progressive messaging was a large part of the reason why he became the nominee IMO), but this election, with how hard HRC has been going after moderate Republicans, it's been really blatant. Idk if the Dem establishment will really want to turn back even to Obama-level weak progressiveness, especially if HRC wins, since they think progressives don't matter/are naive and delusional.

[roseembolism]

If that's the best the Aerican Left has to offer, no wonder they keep losing elections. I saw better crap being published in hand-assembled manifestos back in the 70s.

And yeah, in effect he is pro Trump. At this stage in the game, it's a binary election; either Trump or Clinton will win. Whether he's doing it because a) he hopes a Trump victory will usher in "The Revolution", b) he hopes to get a Trump tax break, or c) because he's an idiot that believes in voting purely on the basis of ideological purity, his attacks on Clinton and the Democratic party are helping Trump. So, his effect is pro Trump, whatever he claims to be. And if he's as much of an intellectual he claims to be, then he knows that- which makes his protestations cynical lies.

[jeeelim5]

Um.. maybe they forgot to add the cut?

I've done that before by accident and didn't realize it until one of the mods kindly informed me that I was missing it. I know you don't agree with the article but there's no need to come off so agressive about something like forgetting to add a cut.

Idk I just think you could have worded that in a nicer, non-condescending way.

[prehnite]

Learn to use a LJ-cut BEFORE posting your huge articles.

An LJ cut like the one that's after the second paragraph and that's been there all along?

[ohmiya_sg]

It was rude of them, but your post is two pages long for me, outside of the cut.

[prehnite]

It's probably the embedded tweets taking up room. I'll try to cut the last one down.

[ohmiya_sg]

Thanks!