Freedom Rider: Russiagate and Democratic defeat

It should now be clear to all honest and sane people that the only collusion was between the corporate media and the Democratic Party to spin a phony tale.

The Russiagate investigation is as much a witch hunt as the despicable Donald Trump always insisted. The charge that Trump colluded with the Russian government in the 2016 election has been abandoned even by the people who turned the allegation into a well-paid cottage industry. The Mueller investigation has come up empty and Democrats are scrambling to keep their creation alive in order to make themselves politically relevant. They should be planning how to go about giving the people what they need and want. But Medicare for All and any other proposals that would benefit the masses are off the table for them and their corporate donors.

The House Oversight Committee presided over a surreal circus as former Trump attorney Michael Cohen’s testimony revealed absolutely nothing useful about Trump. Calling him a liar and racist is old news to all but dead ender Trumpists. Despite the intense media coverage of his every word Cohen made only one worthwhile statement. “He never expected to win the primary. He never expected to win the general election. The campaign—for him—was always a marketing opportunity.” The Democratic Party raised more than $1 billion but lost to a con artist whose swindle went awry.

The Democrats were anxious to deflect blame for their self-inflicted calamity after carrying out one of the worst political debacles in history in 2016. They pointed fingers at Bernie Sanders, the Green Party, Vladimir Putin and even leftist celebrities after the day of reckoning exposed them as corrupt and inept frauds.

Michael Cohen gave them the opportunity to continue the farce and use it as a dubious election issue. Congressional Black Caucus Members joined in behaving as foolishly as the rest of their colleagues. A Republican put a black female Trump staffer on display in an effort to claim that he is not a bigot. But the CBC couldn’t even make hay out of a political gift. Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings excused the modern day auction block with soothing words for his cracker colleague. He finished the proceedings with maudlin comfort for Cohen.

Cummings wasn’t alone in creating stupid spectacle. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz was forced to resign as Democratic National Committee Chair after she and others were caught rigging the primary against Bernie Sanders. Yet without a hint of irony she posed questions about non-existent Russian meddling.

One by one the Russiagate allegations are falling by the wayside. Michael Cohen never went to Prague to meet Russian hackers or to do anything else. He never heard of any collusion plans or Trump vulnerability to blackmail.  Of course, the proceedings were farcical. The only collusion was between the corporate media and the Democratic Party to spin a phony tale.

The Democrats insist that WikiLeaks accessed their emails with the help of Russian hackers. While WikiLeaks announced every email release beforehand Cohen was allowed to pontificate about Trump’s supposedly secret knowledge of what was already public. There is even evidence that a DNC staffer leaked the material to Julian Assange and WikiLeaks but the media make certain that this plausible hypothesis never sees the light of day.

Running against Trump as villain absent policy change gave him the electoral college victory in 2016 but the failed strategy is already in use for the 2020 race. They hope that this time they can pull off getting the votes they need without proposing even incremental change.

It is sad to see the Democratic Party rank and file hang on desperately to fluff about who asked the sharpest questions or who was most photogenic at the hearing. For more than two years after their party failed them they refuse to dump the losers. But the losers are cynical and plan to continue the farce as long as they possibly can.

After two years they will now investigate Trump’s activities that were always the most obvious impeachable offenses. Trump was a tax cheating crooked businessman and it shouldn’t be hard to find evidence of wrongdoing. Even so, Nancy Pelosi is steadfast in saying there will be no impeachment regardless of what these investigations uncover.

Democratic Party voters are no better off now than they were in November 2016. Their so-called leadership are determined to change nothing yet they promise a different outcome. In the aftermath of their defeat this columnist wrote, “Victory is ours if we dump the Democrat Party and their black misleaders.” The upcoming election season is an opportunity to plan how to replace them with a truly progressive party. Any other course of action only validates their corruption and continues the suffering of millions of people.

Margaret Kimberley’s Freedom Rider column appears weekly in BAR, and is widely reprinted elsewhere. She maintains a frequently updated blog as well at freedomrider.blogspot.com.  Ms. Kimberley lives in New York City, and can be reached via e-Mail at Margaret.Kimberley(at)BlackAgendaReport.com.

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