General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTale of a traitor: Is the famous betrayal of Benedict Arnold echoed in Michael Flynn?
TUESDAY, JUL 4, 2017 08:00 AM EDT
Tale of a traitor: Is the famous betrayal of Benedict Arnold echoed in Michael Flynn?
Embittered by rejection and in need of money, a general turns against his own country. Who are we talking about?
HEATHER DIGBY PARTON
Ive heard dozens of people over the pre-Fourth of July weekend make the comment that the founders must be rolling over in their graves at the spectacle of Donald Trump as president of the United States. Maybe they are, but not because they are shocked at the spectacle of an incompetent leader. After all, at the time Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence they were dealing with the Donald Trump of his day: Mad King George. In fact, they pretty much wrote the Constitution with him in mind. And he wasnt the only one. There had been many European monarchs who were off their rockers, and much of the Enlightenment was informed by that fact.
Link to tweet
/photo/1
This comparison to Trump isnt an original thought, of course. Almost from the moment he took office people have been comparing him to the Mad King. Last February in the New Republic, in the wake of the presidents bizarre first press conference, Jacob Bacharach surveyed unhinged rulers of the past from Caligula on down and recalled the 1994 film The Madness of King George, in which William Pitt, the prime minister, said:
<< We consider ourselves blessed in our constitution. We tell ourselves our Parliament is the envy of the world. But we live in the health and well-being of the sovereign as much as any vizier does the Sultan. >>
But the Trump administration isnt just evoking images of the Mad King on this Fourth of July. As it happens, one of the more interesting dramas of recent years about the revolutionary period is the AMC series Turn: Washingtons Spies, about the famous Culper spy ring. Its a harrowing story of daring and bravery that I enjoyed very much when I was a kid, and it served as my introduction to the Revolutionary War.
more
http://www.salon.com/2017/07/04/tale-of-a-traitor-is-the-famous-betrayal-of-benedict-arnold-echoed-in-michael-flynn/
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)Sure, we need to address Flynn, but he's small potatoes.
Comey used his power as Director of the FBI to remove the Democratic Party from power by by throwing the election to Trump, and through him to the powers controlling the Republican Party. That's an enormous betrayal in itself.
But Comey also did it knowing that Putin was also working to subvert the leadership of the U.S. with the same goals. He knew the Democratic Party was an enormous barrier to Putin's plan to restore the Soviet Union and even a threat to Putin's own continuation in power. Comey knew that all the time he watched the Kremlin hacking the DNC computers and did not inform the DNC leadership that it was happening.
A big question is: Did Comey work carefully alone, or did he collude with anyone at all, American or foreign, to defeat the Democratic Party? Is he still so powerful that he cannot be investigated, and if so, why? He is no longer director, after all. Who'd be protecting him?