A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

© 2019 Scribner and The Washington Post On Quora, Trump supporter Jeff Blake asks this insincere question:  When will the left finally realize who really colluded with foreign countries to influence the 2016 presidential election? My reply:  News flash, sweet summer child: The “left,” the “center,” and the sane, honest members of the “right” are painfully aware that it was the Republican Party and - especially - the Trump campaign team who colluded with the Russians to influence the 2016 general election. It’s only most of the “right,” particularly the die-hard core of Trump supporters and the craven leadership of the GOP, that constantly bangs on the “No collusion, no obstruction” drum. The Red Cap Brigade uses several tactics to gaslight the public and hide the modern-day Republican Party’s cozy relations with the Russians. They range from outright denial (“Russia did not intervene in the 2016 election at all.”) to clever deflection (“Russia  did...

On the questions-and-answers site Quora, member Richard Lindhe asks: Why do you think Mitch McConnell is so offended by the nickname Moscow Mitch instead of just laughing it off? My reply: I do not - thank goodness - know Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) personally, but I can make an educated guess as to why he is so ticked off at being called “Moscow Mitch.” McConnell started out as a moderate Republican when he started his political career. His early political positions as a Kentucky politician were pragmatical and middle-of-the-road. He wasn’t an opponent of abortion rights, and he used to support public employee unions. But since his first election to the U.S. Senate in 1985, McConnell has become the poster boy for partisan obstructionism and a desire to grab as much power for the right-wing of the Republican Party as he can. One of the GOP’s tropes is that conservatives are allegedly more patriotic than the Democratic Party or liberals in general. Social media (F...