This point must be repeated to Russia-leaning progressives till it finally sinks in.

[pnwmom]

https://www.thenation.com/article/its-not-mccarthyism-to-demand-answers-on-trump-russia-and-the-election/

Russia is not a communist country; it is a capitalist kleptocracy run by an autocrat and an enemy of human rights. If there’s a lingering legacy of McCarthyism around this issue, it doesn’t emanate from liberals but from the left, where some kind of subconscious sympathy with the state formerly known as the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic curiously persists even though the place now embodies everything they oppose. If the country accused of the hack was, say, Pakistan or Saudi Arabia, would we be talking about McCarthyism then?

[nycbos]

1. These our facts. Facts don't matter to these folks.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. Yes, absolutely!

An especially important point:

McCarthyism involved the use of immense state power against a large, shape-shifting mass of fairly powerless ordinary people who, with rare exceptions, had done nothing more than exercise their right to freedom of speech and association. . . . McCarthyism was a miasma of innuendo, divorced from facts. In the matter of Russia and Trump, a small number of individuals are suspected of serious and specific crimes. Moreover, this time around, the state is firmly in the grip of the supposed victims of the witch hunt. Donald Trump isn’t a high-school teacher who once subscribed to The Daily Worker; he is president of the United States.

[m-lekktor]

3. Ahhh. Katha Pollit. I should have known. nt

[MicaelS]

5. What does that mean? n/t

[MicaelS]

4. Russia is not our adversary, doncha know....

Case in point. https://www.democraticunderground.com/10028824103

My reaction to that post is that is total bullshit. It never ceases to amaze me how foolish some on the Left are when it comes to our adversaries. No matter what our adversaries do, people like that find a way to explain it away, and oft times turn it around and try to blame the US.

Russia is one of our adversaries. So are China and North Korea.

Russia has a long history of paranoia and an inferiority complex, as long as they exhibit these behaviors they and their culture will never be respected.

[pnwmom]

6. Yes. And thanks! n/t

[mopinko]

7. i wouldnt care if it was fecking ireland

messing w our democracy is messing w our democracy.

[NutmegYankee]

8. There are no Russia-leaning progressives.

Only Russian trolls.

[colsohlibgal]

9. Correct

I am as progressive as can be and I'm no fan of Putin and Russia. I know lots of progressives and nary a Russkie lover among them.

[moondust]

10. The Nation?

Home of Stephen Cohen, who some have for years seen as a Kremlin apologist, and his wife Katrina?