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Where Are We Now?

Howell Hurst Defining Trump

The professed news of the times is the investigation to determine if certain people in the Trump government have had financial dealings with certain Russians, and other countries and their corporations, that in essence allied them with their interests over America’s interests.

This is a provocative claim. It requires cautious handling. Both Liberals and Conservatives should be extremely careful not to rush to judgment on this issue. The only rational and politically prudent approach is to wait and see what the investigation eventually discovers and factually proves. Or is unable to factually prove.

This attitude will not please the Democrats. It may not please some Republicans. But it is the only reasonable attitude for American citizens to take, whose opinions need to be determined by the final results of the investigation, not by the frequently frenetic antics of politicians or occasionally fuzzy reporting of the corporate news media.

Why is the issue so important?

Mr. Putin, who pretends to run a democracy, is a seventeen-year-long, near-dictator of his country. His background and training are in Intelligence. He was a major Soviet political enforcer to the East German government when I, as a young U.S. Army Captain, was helping keep an eye on East Germany, the land of the infamous Berlin Wall.

Putin is not a sterling personality. He is aligned with the big money of Russia, many of whose present ruling Oligarchs are former KGB, Soviet Intelligence people. Many of their internal political enemies have been murdered in his seventeen years. Poisoned. Fallen out of windows. Been shot to death. Beaten to pulps. Intelligence-styled behavior.

The question is, when certain American persons conducted certain transactions, did they do so to increase the profits of Russian, American, and other countries’ corporations, and the individuals themselves, to the detriment of our country? What is essentially being investigated is the depth of potential political and corporate financial corruption of our, the American public’s, interests.

It is an ethical question of importance. Very big dollars have passed between, as a bare minimum, the former Soviet Union’s present Putin reincarnation and various Americans allied with Mr. Trump. The transfers of money may have been ethically justifiable. They may not.

If not, the question of loyalty to the United States arises; therefore, the importance of the investigation. And the importance that none concerned with the issue allow themselves to be prematurely influenced by any ill-founded ideological beliefs. This is no time for loyalty to either the Democrats or the Republicans. This is time for cool heads.

The primary people capable of making sure that this is not a witch hunt, and that its evidential results will actually bring into Federal courts any persons found to have forfeited loyalty to the United States – are us, the citizens of the country. It’s not a bad time for all us Americans to carefully and widely watch the International and U.S. media, from both Left and Right, to see how journalists cover the issue.

The American Public and our journalists potential allies to bring this investigation to a credible conclusion. Millions of Americans have recently held U.S. politicians feet forcefully to the fire in public demonstrations and hearings. That is good. That is what is needed. It is a long time coming. This public activity has created potential crossover allies of previous Left and Right citizens, and reporters.

Any Americans not taking this seriously and watching closely also need their feet held to the fire. We’ve got the political situation we are in because a mute middle class in America has been lax in not participating in our civic duty. Too many Americans in our relative middle class comfort have remained silent, leaving protesting to the young, the old, and various diverse political activists.

We’ve got the government we deserve because of our lack of personal political rigor. It’s not a bad time for all of us to rekindle some individual faith in our system of government, which states that we are the ultimate source of political power.

Otherwise, we’re likely to be forced to shut up and live with what might become a system of government we will long live to regret. One we may well have allowed to come about due to an overly smug, complacent, individual absence of personal courage.

www.howellhurst.com

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