Patrick Lawrence on ‘Russiagate Coup’ and the Death of ‘Democracy’
Oct. 20, 2020 (EIRNS)—Patrick Lawrence, the historian/journalist who was essentially fired from The Nation after reporting on William Binney’s proof that the Russians did not hack the DNC, published a piece in Consortium News Oct. 19 titled, “The Damage Russiagate Has Done.” His argument is contained in the question he poses: “When we consider together all its many consequences, has Russiagate destroyed what remained of American democracy before illiberal liberals, spooks, law enforcement, and the press colluded to erect the dreadful edifice?” He continues: “Your columnist’s answer rests on the most scrupulously precise definition of Russiagate one can manage: What we have witnessed these past four years is an attempted palace coup against a sitting President.”
Further, he states the fact that no one, even the Bidens, deny that the truth is out on their “very profitable influence-peddling schemes.” He continues: “When wrongdoing by Democrats is credibly exposed, automatically blame Russia. Among much else, that has led to unnecessary tension with a nuclear power. This damage will long stay with us.”
“What an ungodly mess Russiagate has made of our splendid republic,” he goes on.
“We have watched an attempted coup not much different from the CIA’s covert ops elsewhere over the decades, then gave the coup plotters three years to investigate the plot, and no one, as things now appear, will be brought to justice for these travesties.”
On the role of the media: “They only look like newspapers now. The liberal media are now bulletin boards for those they serve—the Democratic Party, the spooks, and all the interests these two represent. Do they think that, once Trump leaves office, they can cavalierly reclaim the credibility they have profligately squandered in the service of Russiagate?”
On the psychological damage to Americans:
“The worst consequence of Russiagate, in my view, is the swoon of hysteria it has sent many Americans into, a syndrome peculiar to our national character dating to the Quaker hangings in Boston during the early 1660s and repeated many times since. We are divided once again between the paranoid and the rational.
“The paranoids, the Puritan preachers, the witch hunters, those who think censorship is a fine thing are this time one and all authoritarian liberals apparently determined to make everyone think as they do or else see to their banishment from the circles of the elect.”
“Defactualization,” he concludes, “in the service of all the Russiagate rubbish has gravely undermined numerous of our key institutions. As things now stand, this leaves us well short of what we need to reconstruct a working democracy.”
