Nanostring Founder
Jul 27, 2017 · 2 min read

Very interesting and enlightening, thanks! My question is, why do you think Trump/Russia would trigger an awakening, given that G.W.Bush didn’t? In terms of destruction of core American values, the 2000–2008 period was probably the worst in history. Militarization and faux patriotism. Lying to voters and Congress about WMD. Authorization of torture and war crimes. Suspension of habeas corpus. Inflicting personal harm on conscientious dissenters (Joe Wilson/Valerie Plame). Obstruction of justice, officially sanctioned via a presidential pardon, over criminal conviction (Scooter Libby)…
To that add active enabling of a perverted form of free-market capitalism, which rewards financial manipulation and (mis)management over productive creation. And to top it off, complete lack of accountability for a totally incompetent and moronic President, with a massive track record of clusterf%%s: Iraq, Katrina, economic collapse, etc…

I just don’t see the Trump/Russia affair to be anywhere close in impact. True, there likely was a collusion, and likely sanctions relief was offered. Pretty bad. But let’s consider impact. Sanction relief ultimately failed, couldn't pass Congress. And even if it did, what would be its impact? On US population: likely zero. On Ukraine, legitimization of Crimea annex: blah… it is a low-value territory, both historically and ethnically Russian. I just don’t see the damage done being very significant; in any case, nowhere near the G.W.Bush dimensions.

If you say that the damage is the legitimization of a non-democratic, even dictatorial foreign regime, then what about the US-Saudi Arabia patronage?

I just don’t see this affair being transformational, or of any major importance to enough people to trigger rethinking of American polity. Unfortunately, a society that did not rise during the dark G.W.Bush era will likely shrug this off…

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