As one of my Twitter followers put it
so succinctly: “Globalization: Where leaders from any country get to pick US
Presidents.” As the Clinton campaign’s Robby Mook tears a page out of Joe McCarthy’s
book and smears Donald Trump as being “Putin’s
puppet,” the irony is that this election has seen foreign interference in
American politics to an unprecedented degree – on Hillary’s behalf.
In the past, foreign actors tried to hide such activities, rightly thinking
that they might encounter resentment – or even legal consequences – for trying
to meddle in affairs that are none of their damned business. Not anymore. Now
that we’re a global empire, with our leaders proclaiming the supreme importance
of exercising “US leadership” and sticking our noses in every petty squabble
on earth, our client states are openly interfering in our internal affairs.
After all, if we can engage in “regime change” campaigns, and dictate the terms
and results of Lower Slobbovia’s elections, why can’t they interfere in ours?
To this end they employ legions of publicists, lobbyists, and tame congressmen
to pursue their national interests, mostly at our expense: the billions in “foreign
aid” we ship overseas come back to our shores in the form of exorbitant fees
paid to PR firms – a rare trade deal where American firms actually come out
ahead!
Most of this is relatively subtle, and covert – or, at least, it has been up
to now. However, the Trump phenomenon has changed the rules of the game, and
foreign actors are now openly coming out of the closet – so to speak – and brazenly
attacking the GOP candidate. I can’t recall a presidential contest where a foreign
ambassador has written an op-ed piece attacking one of the candidates, but this
election season has Ukraine’s ambassador to the US, Valeriy Chaly, publishing
a
piece in the Ukrainian Weekly echoing the Mookarthyite charge that
Trump is the
Manchurian candidate. Trump’s comments on the Ukraine issue “have raised
serious concerns,” we are told, as Chaly goes on to write that:
“Since the Russian aggression, there has been bipartisan support for U.S.
sanctions against Russia, and for such sanctions to remain in place until the
territorial integrity of Ukraine is restored. Efforts to enhance Ukraine’s defense
capacity are supported across the aisle, as well, to ensure that Ukraine becomes
strong enough to deter Russia’s aggression.
“Even if Mr. Trump’s comments are only speculative, and do not really reflect
a future foreign policy, they call for appeasement of an aggressor and support
the violation of a sovereign country’s territorial integrity and another’s breach
of international law.”
Chaly doesn’t get it, but that’s not surprising – he’s a foreigner, after all.
Trump…