The Russia “scandal,” as we are being told to consider it, plays perfectly into the hands of Washington power. It is the ideal distraction. Republicans love it because as long as it dominates the news, there is less space for coverage of stories like the effect of new immigration policies or the rollback of environmental regulations. Democrats are just as happy, for another reason. Embracing the fantasy that Russian interference cost them the 2016 election allows them to avoid facing the reality that their defeat was really the result of presenting a widely loathed candidate and a set of policies far distant from the concerns of ordinary voters.
In Washington, Democrats compete with Republicans to see who can be most anti-Russian. Liberals and conservatives alike share space on this runaway train. Think tanks, almost without exception, parrot the same line: Russia is the evil shadow seeking to darken a world that the virtuous United States is trying to pacify and enlighten. Dissent from this stereotype is considered treasonous — as evidenced by Senator John McCain’s charge that one of his colleagues was “working for Vladimir Putin” because he voted against admitting Montenegro to NATO. It is another reflection of how depressingly monochromatic our foreign policy has become.
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