The last few years have been fascinating as to what constitutes a fact versus an opinion. In the last election, it seemed that the national mood was exasperation. It became apparent that the nation's voters were paralyzed and did not care to investigate the arguments that various office holding incumbents used to explain their votes in legislative assemblies such as Congress.
In an election where most of the focus in 2016 seemed to be on which issues that the candidates coyly evaded, the word obfuscation took on new significance. The old adage emerged that candidates should nod their heads empathetically to constituents while not giving honest opinions about anything of consequence. It seems that being "warm and fuzzy" trumps being principled and honest. The honesty is reserved for dark money campaign contributions.
Since the Vietnam War, the trust of the American people has been repeatedly and cynically taken for granted by public servants who listen to campaign donors and pretend they hear the voices of voters in their home States and Districts. Should a concerned employee indicted for being a whistleblower be treated as a traitor? The Pentagon Papers, released in 1970 to several United States newspapers, had been kept classified for years prior to their dramatic entry into the public court of opinion. Through defying the norms of the Departments of State and Defense, Daniel Ellsberg was able to show the citizens who took the time to read the Pentagon Papers the dysfunctional, irrational, and wrongheaded manner in which the USA set post World War 2 policy in Indochina. The USA's failure to understand was that the Vietnamese people simply wanted France and later the USA TO GET OUT OF THEIR COUNTRY.
In an election where most of the focus in 2016 seemed to be on which issues that the candidates coyly evaded, the word obfuscation took on new significance. The old adage emerged that candidates should nod their heads empathetically to constituents while not giving honest opinions about anything of consequence. It seems that being "warm and fuzzy" trumps being principled and honest. The honesty is reserved for dark money campaign contributions.
Since the Vietnam War, the trust of the American people has been repeatedly and cynically taken for granted by public servants who listen to campaign donors and pretend they hear the voices of voters in their home States and Districts. Should a concerned employee indicted for being a whistleblower be treated as a traitor? The Pentagon Papers, released in 1970 to several United States newspapers, had been kept classified for years prior to their dramatic entry into the public court of opinion. Through defying the norms of the Departments of State and Defense, Daniel Ellsberg was able to show the citizens who took the time to read the Pentagon Papers the dysfunctional, irrational, and wrongheaded manner in which the USA set post World War 2 policy in Indochina. The USA's failure to understand was that the Vietnamese people simply wanted France and later the USA TO GET OUT OF THEIR COUNTRY.
The newspapers of the United States are privately held, the First Amendment allowing them an unfettered and critical role in the close examination of governmental policies, actions, and degree of success or failure that results from them. The tension between the constructs of freedom and authority, obedience and personal action of conscience, and cultural maintenance and innovation could be termed the checks and balances of a nation's society. The architects of our nation's beginnings were keenly aware that the effect that rigid/absolute or underdeveloped models of decision-making were toxic to the development of a long- term nationally prioritized agreed system for social change.
The current tension between the Executive and Legislative branches of our government over the possible meddling of the Russian government in the 2016 election cycle calls into question the manner in which then possible future members of the Executive Branch interacted with the Russian Government while involved in Republican campaigning for the Presidency.
The democratic model of national government is vulnerable to espionage precisely due to the independent media and the Constitutional freedom to vote, protest, financially influence, and offer dissent regarding various stands on issues at all levels of governing--family, city or county, state, and national. Such dissent creates huge forces pushing for their desired outcomes which can be manipulated by subtle or secret espionage interactions not easily traced back to their origin.
When one of the three branches of our government is permeated with toxic foreign influences systematically and secretly advanced, the only possible counterintelligence answer is to ruthlessly self-examine by backward engineering the espionage strategies that worked and eliminating them.
If the targeted or victimized government branches uncooperative to the counterintelligence systems, the counterintelligence is hobbled, making the operations of the enemy espionage more likely to be successful. The self-serving and ruthlessly ambitious politicians become blind to the fact that they are being played like a banjo by forces hostile to free elections in a democracy.
The citizens of a democratic republic owe it to themselves to understand the deleterious impact of a successful espionage disinformation campaign. Instead, they must decide to hold accountable the elected or appointed officials who refuse to ruthlessly seek the truth to remedy a successful espionage disinformation campaign. To do less is to open the door to demagoguery and lies from the very people who were elected to seek the truth without exceptions.
To seek truth, the public official must remember the principle that government is only possible if the official in question remembers that he or she serves by consent of the people.
Copyright 2018 by Peter Reum-All Rights Reserved
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