From Russia With Distractions

Vladimir Putin (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Ever since it was learned that Russia tried to interfere with the U.S. presidential election, which led to Donald Trump instead of Hillary Clinton in the White House, suspicions and doubt have been growing all over Washington as there are calls to find out who's zooming whom (as Aretha Franklin would put it).

Trump, who has expressed a fondness for Russian leader Vladimir Putin and the way he does business since before the election, has watched as some of his staffers have been accused of cozying up to Russian officials when they're not supposed to.  And that his Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who was found to have fraternized with a Kremlinist or two when he was a U.S. Senator, is recusing himself from an investigation into all this.

There is talk of a special prosecutor being appointed to look into all aspects of this case, which might finally include a peek inside Trump's tax returns.  But how "independent" would the investigation actually be, if Trump had the power to fire the prosecutor if he doesn't like where things are headed?  Think Archibald Cox (who was let go by President Richard Nixon during Watergate) or Kenneth Starr (who looked into the Clinton scandals).

Trump's reaction to this alleged sabotage is what you'd expect any President to do when confronted with bad news, which is to create distractions.  He went into Mad Twitter mode over the weekend, accusing former President Barack Obama of tapping his phones at Trump Tower.  He has yet to provide any proof of this, but it really doesn't matter.  As long as Trump is President, people will take seriously anything he says no matter how ridiculous or paranoid it is.

Meanwhile, the President issued a new 90-day travel ban to replace the one that created a lot of protests and court challenges.  This time, the number of Muslim-majority countries in the "Do Not Enter" list is down to six, now that Iraq has proved they're serious about defeating ISIL.  Green cards and visas will be more welcome, as well as the citizens in good standing who are already here.  But families will be separated at the Mexican border so the parents can be grilled by customs agents and the kids would be "well taken care of".  There will still be protests and court challenges, but at least the ban will not be implemented for another week or so.

The Republicans in Congress created their own distraction by finally issuing a proposal which they hope would replace the Affordable Care Act, which they had talked about getting rid of for years.  The GOP version isn't much different from Obamacare except for the tax credits, the return of health savings accounts and the essential defunding of Planned Parenthood, among other things.  It will not be an easy sell, given that most Democrats and some conservatives don't think the health care system is all that broken.

But neither Muslim Travel Ban Part Deux nor health care reform that favors the insurance companies should blind us to the possibility that American democracy is being compromised by a strongman from another continent, in the guise of better relations between the U.S. and Russia.

In 1987, ABC broadcast a made-for-TV miniseries called "Amerika", which was a fictional account of how the Soviet Union conquered the United States without a shot being fired or a bomb being dropped.  The movie was not a rousing success with critics and viewers and, after the U.S.S.R. collapsed, was never heard from again.  In 2017, are we watching life imitating art?