CommentsCONSIDER THIS-For the record, I am against foreign interference in free elections.
Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. election was an assault on democracies everywhere, and it flat out disregarded the will of the American people.
That said, there are certain factors that led to Donald Trump’s victory that cannot be blamed on Vladimir Putin. For one, the Russian autocrat did not create our nation’s education crisis. In Rochester, NY, the city I call home, the Rochester City School District has a graduation rate of 50%. America’s national and global rankings in STEM, the literary arts, and history, have been steadily declining for decades. A recent survey by the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania found that “just a quarter of Americans in the nationally representative survey could name all three branches of government — the worst showing on that question in six years… Nearly a third could not name a single branch of government."
Trump’s base, as has been well documented, consists primarily of white, uneducated, and lower income voters. As a consequence of dismantling the public education system and watering down expectations and standards across the board, with or without Putin’s subterfuge, the United States was primed for an intellectual implosion.
Nor did Putin create our nation’s manic preoccupation with violence. He simply exploited it for his own purposes. Trump’s campaign rhetoric was based on machismo, a tough on crime posture, anti-immigrant hate speech, and xenophobic taunts aimed at “radical” Islam. His base eats this up. In fact, every time the president has authorized military action, his poll numbers rise significantly.
Furthermore, Putin cannot be blamed for America’s racism, disrespect towards women, and tragic history of discrimination against minorities in general. No matter how sinister Putin’s antics may be, they cannot explain slavery, Jim Crow, segregated schools, and assassinated African-American leaders. Trump has been popular with his base because he is adept at speaking in code words and dog whistles. Ultimately, what his base gets from him in return for their undying loyalty, is a promise to make the civil rights movement both politically and legally irrelevant.
None of this can be attributed to the geopolitical strategies of Mr. Putin. No matter what Putin does to intervene in our national affairs, his motives and actions will not alter the genetic legacy of white male superiority that has infiltrated every pore of social life in this country since its inception.
As I see it, Putin will never be the cause of a U.S. downfall. More cunning and subtle, the former KGB operative is a man who simply takes advantage of America’s weaknesses -- Mr. Trump included -- as he currently finds them.
(George Cassidy Payne is a freelance writer, domestic violence counselor, and adjunct professor of philosophy at Finger Lakes Community College. He is a CityWatch contributor.) Prepped for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.
