Russia is barely the Cold War bear whose propaganda didn’t worry us
Even as almost 66 million of them once voted for her, Hillary Clinton has ever since treated Americans are if we are piteously gullible.
The Soviet Union had two TV channels. One was propaganda. The other was the KGB telling you to turn back to the propaganda.
Even as almost 66 million of them once voted for her, Hillary Clinton has ever since treated Americans as if we are piteously gullible. The latest example was last weekend’s widely-derided MSNBC interview [emphasis added throughout]:
So I think we need to uncover all of the connections and make it very clear that you could vote however you want, but we are not going to let adversaries, whether it is Russia, China, Iran, or anybody else, basically try to influence Americans as to how we should vote in picking our leaders.
As usual, the focus of her angst was Russia:
What the Russians started doing in 2015 and 2016, what they continued doing, they have gotten more sophisticated. They aren't even pretending anymore.
Sigh. We used to be a proper country. We need to make America confident again.
Gus Hall, candidate of the Communist Party USA, ran for president in 1972, 1976, 1980 and 1984. In Hillary’s terror-speak, this era was the epitome of “Russian election interference.” The Soviets were literally running an open effort to win the White House with their talking points and funding.
While none of this was a secret, one of the bamboozled was Fordham college student John Brennan, our future CIA director, who voted for the Communists in 1976. This Russian propaganda penetration of America was such a concern at the height of the Cold War that … um…
Well … it wasn’t.
In his 1980 job interview with the CIA, Brennan fessed up to his vote for the KGB candidate just four years earlier. The CIA was amused enough to hire Brennan and then promote him to the top of American spycraft. No big deal.
And yet, the Russian bear we’re being led to fear today by the likes of Hillary Clinton and Brennan is barely a shell of the one our former CIA director voted for.
In 1976, the Soviet military and conventional forces were feared the world over.
Today, annual Russian military spending is eclipsed by the combined forces of the European Union, to say nothing of the United States and China. The Russians are 31 months bogged down in an as-yet unsuccessful effort to defeat a far smaller neighboring nation that was once part of the Soviet Union.
In 1975, according to a CIA analysis, the Soviet Union’s GDP was 58 percent as large as the American economy. If this were true of today’s Russia, then Russian GDP would be nearly $16 trillion and the world’s third largest economy.
Instead, Russian annual GDP is way down at $2 trillion, ranking it right between Canada and Mexico. Russian GDP per capita is an even sadder situation at $14,000, or roughly equal to Argentina or Mexico, and $3000 less than Chile.
So, what was once justifiably called the “Evil Empire” now just resembles a mediocre South American economy ruled by an insecure former KGB officer … who has an outsized army and nuclear weapons.
Russia is indeed still dangerous. But it’s because they’re desperate and still armed with WMD, not because they can–or ever could–convince Americans to buy the bullshit they are selling.
John Brennan excepted, when it came to the Russians (and pretty much anyone else) Americans were once a supremely confident, far less paranoid breed. Dare I say that was a big part of what made us truly “great”?
Perhaps that’s why the MAGA message resonates more than Russia panic ever should.
This is great, Ken... awesome intel on Brennan.. wow. I ,oddly, remember the Communist party POTUS candidate thing from 1980. Reagan guy... but John Anderson had family etc around my hometown and the whole election got tons of pub. And your opening headline? #5Stars!
The Soviet Union had two TV channels. One was propaganda. The other was the KGB telling you to turn back to the propaganda.
What exactly is it that HRC is suggesting the Russians are doing to influence American elections? The whole thing is just absurd.