Obama’s Great Mistake
Putin succeeded in placing Trump because Obama did not trust the American people
Obama treated Russian interference in the 2016 election as though it were a private affair between two potentates instead of treating the matter as what it was: a public matter and the people’s business.
The first inkling of Russian interference was in early Summer. But though the administration had reason to believe it was directed by Putin and aimed to put Trump in the White House we were kept in the dark until October — and then the intentions of Putin were not told to us. Important facts were being kept from the electorate — apparently for our own good. If we knew the truth we might react irrationally and further ruin our own election.
Government held onto this information, evidently regarding it as too dangerous for a malleable and cognitively-challenged electorate.
But what was needed here was a democratization of knowledge — the democratic and fair distribution of actionable knowledge. The advantages of keeping this knowledge in the hands of a few (like capital) are outweighed enormously by sharing it and making it public property. The voters are not less intelligent than government. Government is composed of the very same minds that compose the electorate.
A more democratic approach to the Russian meddling would have been much better than the approach taken. It would have engaged the people in condemning Russian interference, and the commitment behind that accusation would have been demonstrated by swift, decisive, and painful sanctions and other punitive measures on Russia.
As one intelligent commentator pointed out, if Obama sanctioned Russia for meddling in Ukraine, he should have been even more punitive in response to meddling in America. But timing is everything when the deadline is November 8.
There is today a chorus crying that it’s easy now to second guess; we now have the virtue of hindsight. And some have said that Obama did the best he could do under the circumstances. I disagree with the latter statement and the former is a trite formula for excusing dereliction or bad judgment.
Where the bad judgment comes in is in the overbearing perception in government that the people it governs — the public — are a) devoid of judgment and b) not entitled to information that affects them and c) that the State knows what’s best for the people — an archaic paternalistic view that sees the government (a motley collection of paid water carriers for big business, composed of plumbers, former celebrities, lawn implement salesmen, teachers, realtors, farmers, and what have you) as having superior judgment by virtue of the fact that they could raise the money to get elected.
And the tired mantra of “But Hillary was a sure thing” is no argument against the tried-and-true necessity for due diligence. Because, despite 1.2 billion dollars, she wasn’t a sure thing (e.g., FBI, DNC hacks, Podesta Hacks, revelations of a rigged DNC, Russian bots). So let’s set that piece of conventional (“professional”) wisdom aside and simply own up to the fact that Obama made a huge blunder that figures to go down as possibly the greatest political blunder of the last hundred years or so — Nixon and Bush 2 (Afghanistan, Iraq) being the only other presidents to come close.
I personally like Obama. He was good for the country and for the world. This is not an indictment of the man; it is more an indictment of a government culture that has misplaced its priorities. Hand-wringing over whether the people had a right to know the broad truths about interference was just wrong. Priorities were inverted. The concern — in a kaleidoscope of overthink — was that people would think the wrong thing. And ultimately in a democracy that’s all that matters — what the people think and how they act on their thoughts. In short, there was a lack of faith in the American mind.
The administration — caught in a double-game — thought people would be duped by Mitch McConnell, Trump, and Paul Ryan into thinking an Obama administration ploy to ensure Clinton’s victory was afoot. This signified a complete lack of faith in the collective intelligence of America to sort this thing out. They practiced obscurantism because the truth was too much for the people to handle — or so they believed.
The intuitive thing to do was to lay it all out for the people. Instead they did the counter-intuitive thing and sat on the information, and stewed over it, while letting a disease spread to imprint itself on the people’s minds semi-permanently. They out-thought themselves and the American people. It seems that the Obama administration viewed the people as an uncritical, brainless mob that did not deserve the truth.
When in September the administration proposed bi-partisan public action against Russia (NYT 12/09) the Republican threats of blow-back cowered the administration. McConnell said that he would represent any public response to Russian meddling as election year politics meant to undermine the Republican candidate (NYT). He was saying in effect: “The people of America are stupid morons and we will use that fact to your disadvantage.” Obama seems to have accepted that premise. Incorrectly, I feel.
Or the administration simply was not clever enough to publicly present the facts along with counter-measures in a truly convincing way.
What could have been done? A simple announcement should have been made: Fellow Americans, the CIA has evidence that Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has instructed a number of operatives to undermine our presidential election with a view to placing a candidate favorable to the Kremlin in the White House. That candidate is Donald Trump.
(If a CIA mole in the Kremlin is blown, we could be satisfied that he/she did a good job. Mission accomplished, here’s your new life in America. Because it’s really a case of the lesser of two evils — which is worse? a blown agent or a blown presidency?)
Next, there would be a raft of retaliatory measures announced very publicly and very quickly. These measures would serve two functions: 1) they would punish Russia and 2) they would show the American people that this is real and not fake news. There would be no doubting America’s resolve. We would not expel diplomats, close compounds, and draft more economic sanctions unless this was real and very serious.
In other words, it’s all out in the open. The CIA may have one less mole in Moscow. Russia may know a little more about US infiltration, but that cost would have been well worth it to ensure a fair election.
There would be the possible downside of an adverse effect on Trump’s candidacy. That would be another cost, but again it would be an element of the lesser two evils principle. And one cannot be responsible for all collateral damage when doing what is absolutely necessary for the nation’s well being.
Some will also say that the administration was not completely sure that Putin was behind the interference. That doesn’t wash. Obama personally confronted Putin in September of 2016 (WaPo, 23/6) with the above accusation. To do that he had to have been absolutely sure.
Ultimately, this comes down to honesty and faith. Obama was not honest enough with the American people. He did not trust our intelligence and succumbed to a typical Republican hustle. A very great mistake.
