My Remarks to the March for Truth in Helena, Montana
I am Josh Manning, and, perhaps thankfully, I am your last speaker today. I want to thank everyone who had the courage to stand up here today and speak truth to power in a time when all of us could easily end up on a Blacklist.
Like the people before me, I am here today to talk about an issue that is near and dear to me. During my time in the military, I had the honor of presenting intelligence to our nations’ leadership regarding Russian political and military intentions. I have watched Russian President Vladimir Putin go from what many hoped would be a potential ally to a dictator who has openly and brazenly worked against Western democracies. Now we have numerous questions about how Putin may have influenced the 2016 presidential election to undermine our own government and move the needle even more toward the Kremlin’s preferred model: chaos.
Many have spoken in general terms about what happened but it helps to look at specifics to understand what we are up against. Putin rose to power on a wave of populism, fear of the outside world, and hatred of someone with the last name “Clinton.” Sound familiar? Then his team looked outside Russia and started undermining emerging democratic movements in what is his “near abroad,” places like Chechnya, Central Asia, and Georgia. Once successful, Putin’s team used this template on another neighbor, Ukraine, which went from being a potential beacon of democracy to a nation in chaos.
More recently, Team Putin has used its proven strategies to undermine eastern European and European Union policies and tip the scales toward Brexit. They thankfully fell short of eroding French politics and are now looking at undermining Germany and finishing what they could not in the Balkans. But even more frightening than that, if you start looking at the fingerprints, you see the same subtle players, messaging, and strategies as the handiwork behind the US election of 2016.
What should concern us in this model is what leaders like Putin do to the “opposition” or “enemies” to influence citizens and hold onto power. Take a former Russian spy named Alexander Litvineneko. He tasted a Putin’s influence as radioactive polonium in his tea in a London hotel room in 2006. He died within days because he had dared to speak out against the regime. Viktor Yushchenko, the prime minister of the sovereign nation of Ukraine, also tasted this in the form of dioxin poisoning, which then aged him decades in months for simply speaking out against neighboring Russia.
Russian investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya felt Putin’s influence when gunmen shot her to death outside of her Moscow apartment in 2006. Her crime? Unearthing vicious human rights violations by the Russian military and security forces in restive Chechnya.
Two balaclava-wearing members of a kickass band called Pussy Riot and a former oil executive named Mikhail Khodorkovky dared to oppose Putin publicly and they felt Putin’s influence with the arctic sting of Siberian gulag air for years. It was only through American and Western pressure that Moscow released them. The list of examples like this is much longer and grows daily. At the same time, Trump is using phrases like “enemies” to describe American journalists and calling people who defy him the “opposition.”
Putin ignored global criticism and achieved what he wanted. His audacity became his most effective weapon. Who here doubts Trump and his inner circle have a similar worldview? Putin and his team have used their proven strategies of thuggish violence to create what they call a “sovereign democracy” or “managed democracy.” There is a better name for it: “crony capitalism.” It is a government that exists solely to benefit the specific business interests of those around the leader. For Putin this means massive amounts of oil and gas development. American businessmen pushing these same interests now all have key positions in the Trump Administration. Oh, they also have key ties to similar Russian interests too. Is that a coincidence? (I think not.)
We currently face a daily assault of new reports regarding the close ties between Trump and those around him to the Kremlin. Much of this still remains in a very gray area, but there are dominant theories emerging that demand special attention: Trump may have colluded with or been compromised by Moscow to get into office or Russian intelligence and politicians may have inadvertently helped him win the presidency and he is now beholden to them. None of these options should make anyone feel better and one imagines the Founding Fathers would be aghast at what happened in 2016 to the country they helped create.
When I enlisted in an Army they created, I swore an oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. At the time it was just something I raised my hand and followed to get on with my career. But now, I harken back to it and that promise means something bigger than just my own self-interest. As a nation, as citizens of the U.S. and the State of Montana, we owe it to our founders and to every American alive or dead to ensure our democracy lives on. I don’t say this lightly: our way of life is under attack and we must rise up to save it.
This will demand sacrifices from all of us and tireless efforts to hold local and national leaders accountable. It will demand that everyone you know holds you up when times get tough and that you do the same to them. This is a marathon, not a sprint, yet we have to move quickly to save our democracy because those in power are moving rapidly to undo much of what has been built. It will demand that Montana’s elected officials, regardless of party or their role in the nation stage, speak up and demand accountability. It will demand independent investigation and, if wrongdoing is shown, accountability and prosecution for crimes against each of us. We all must link arms to combat an all-out assault on American democracy.
In the end, our collective March for Truth will be a long, winding road with patches of darkness and light. It will likely reveal shady deals in exchange for power, black bag operations to protect the highest reaches of government, and ultimately dark treasonous secrets. But this is our march, this our moment to show future generations that when pushed and bent, America did not break. We outnumber those working against us and we will emerge on the other side a stronger and more united nation. Of the many questions I have about the future of our country, our mutual resilience is not one.
We each make each other stronger and we cannot forget that in the coming months. They seek to divide us and they seek to make us complacent. Since November 2016, they have seen what a massive task that will be for them. The longer we remain united in this, the more difficult the task for those who seek to undermine this country we love. There is no question we are a nation in peril, but I do not doubt we will emerge victorious.
Thank you.
