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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsKRUGMAN: "Yes, The Election Was Hacked"
Does anyone really doubt that these factors moved swing-state ballots by at least 1 percent? If they did, they made the difference in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania and therefore handed Mr. Trump the election, even though he received almost three million fewer total votes. Yes, the election was hacked.
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So as I said, there were a lot of useful idiots this year, and they made the election hack a success.
Now what? If were going to have any hope of redemption, people will have to stop letting themselves be used the way they were in 2016. And the first step is to admit the awful reality of what just happened.
That means not trying to change the subject to campaign strategy, which is a legitimate topic but has no bearing on the question of electoral subversion. It means not making excuses for news coverage that empowered that subversion.
And it means not acting as if this was a normal election whose result gives the winner any kind of a mandate, or indeed any legitimacy beyond the bare legal requirements. It might be more comfortable to pretend that things are O.K., that American democracy isnt on the edge. But that would be taking useful idiocy to the next level.
MORE!:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/16/opinion/useful-idiots-galore.html
uponit7771
(91,268 posts)DK504
(3,847 posts)Look the other way, shiny tidbits!!!
KamaAina
(78,249 posts)"Vladimir and Donald make big trouble for moose and squirrel"?
Botany
(72,043 posts)This was a coup.
compsports
(91 posts)kpete
(72,760 posts)
Still, the general picture of a president-elect who owes his position in part to intervention by a foreign power, and shows every sign of being prepared to use U.S. policy to reward that power, is accurate.
But lets be honest: Mr. Trump is by no means the only useful idiot in this story. As recent reporting by The Times makes clear, bad guys couldnt have hacked the U.S. election without a lot of help, both from U.S. politicians and from the news media.
Now what? If were going to have any hope of redemption, people will have to stop letting themselves be used the way they were in 2016. And the first step is to admit the awful reality of what just happened.
That means not trying to change the subject to campaign strategy, which is a legitimate topic but has no bearing on the question of electoral subversion. It means not making excuses for news coverage that empowered that subversion.
And it means not acting as if this was a normal election whose result gives the winner any kind of a mandate, or indeed any legitimacy beyond the bare legal requirements. It might be more comfortable to pretend that things are O.K., that American democracy isnt on the edge. But that would be taking useful idiocy to the next level.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/16/opinion/useful-idiots-galore.html
mcar
(43,281 posts)Or hypocrites, or both. Many Americans also don't know who the Vice President is and cannot name even one Supreme Court justice.
Friend or Foe
(195 posts)Judge Judy! Come on. That was an easy one.
mcar
(43,281 posts)barbtries
(29,539 posts)but i need to look forward because it's a done thing, and i plan to resist the end of our democracy as long and as hard as i possibly can.
it sucks of course. who believes the republicans will do jackshit about it? not me
Skittles
(157,427 posts)patriots with critical thinking skills VERY MUCH DO CARE
BainsBane
(54,307 posts)Let us not forget that. Russia tried to take Clinton down during the primaries.
world wide wally
(21,793 posts)Coyotl
(15,262 posts)brer cat
(25,879 posts)"Useful idiots galore" is well said. Diversion is one of their favorite tools and Krugman will not let them get away with it.