More Russia

7/15/2017--Now what about Russia links and the email to Donald Trump Jr.? Is there finally a smoking gun?

A friend of mine asked me why I have no interest in President Trump's collusion with Russia or any of the rest of his failings. This is what I wrote to him. Why don't I engage in activities of resistance--a term I really despise? (Not my friend's term).

Two reasons--and they are related. First, President Trump's policies bother me much more than his unfitness and poor character. And the policies that bother me the most are mainstream Republican. Second, my anger for that is aimed squarely at the left and its anti-political actions. Somebody called it hobbyism. It would not be difficult for the Democrats to control the House and the Senate. But that normal political work is still not being done across the country--it is hard to do and involves trying to change peoples' minds. Hillary Clinton would be President today if she did not have such obvious contempt for voters inclined to vote for Trump. She never went to West Virginia to talk to coal miners. So, I am bothered almost as much as you are, but in an entirely different direction. To me Trump is an outcome of preventable actions and attitudes I don't know how to change.

David Brooks is right that Trump Jr.'s reaction to that email--and his father's comment that most people would take that meeting--are almost a parody of amoral consciousness. That said, we still have a situation that is not collusion. Russia engages in espionage and law violation and then offers the results to the Trump campaign and they are willing to use anything they can get. As a friend of mine who supports Trump said, the Russians were finding out true things that should have been available to the American people--not making things up.

So, would a normal person call the FBI? Obviously. Would a patriot tell the Russians to go blow smoke? Yes.

But I have a sneaking suspicion that the Clinton campaign would have taken such a meeting--with a lot more deniability.

Anyway, compared to the Paris Accord, Obamacare, the travel bans, the anti-trade, the court appointments, net neutrality, bank regulation, tax cuts when we are in deficit, etc., it's normal politics that is bothering me.