The Glaring Question that the Media Refuses to Probe Seriously

[Tom Rinaldo]

It's the elephant in the phone booth that everyone is tip toeing around: Why did the Russians want Trump to win the presidency?

The media largely accepts the consensus findings of the intelligence community that not only did the Russians attempt to disrupt our elections, they did so with an avowed intention of helping Donald Trump get elected. That begs the followup question, doesn't it? Why?

Answers for that question are continually glossed over when it is answered at all. On one hand I've heard it dismissed as simply that Putin had it in for Hillary personally because of insults he and his regime suffered from her while she was Secretary of State. Putin has a huge ego, no doubt, but he is also an extremely hardened autocrat firmly entrenched inside Russia with the power and privileges that he so enjoys. He has much to potentially lose as well as potentially gain when he acts to potentially upend the world order. The risk to benefit equation has to balance. Hacking the American election system, pulling out all the stops to change the internal leadership of the most powerful nation on earth, can not be pursued without encountering some significant risks associated with such a brazen move. The rewards hace to be worth it.

What made those risks acceptable when Putin could have stuck with a far less risky option - just letting it be known that he foresaw a likelihood of increased international tensions if the United States stayed on the same foreign policy course established by "the Obama - Clinton administration" though of course he would be "open to working with" whatever leader the American people elected. That still would have given Trump some material to work with. I don't believe a theory that implies Putin acted in such a dramatic high stakes manner simply because Hillary bruised his male ego. With Trump, yeah that's plausible, with Putin, no.

Aside from the above dubious explanation for Putin's actions, the media seems to be bending over backwards to not connect the dots. Putin would not have risked the potential adverse consequences of intervening so blatantly into the internal affairs of America to elect Donald Trump, if Putin were not confident that a President Trump would help advance Russia's (i.e. Putin's) strategic interests. The central question(s) then is why was Putin so confident that electing Trump would advance strategic Russian interests? Exactly what Russian interests does Putin expect Trump to help advance? How does this effect American strategic interests? That's the ball game.

The media questions why Trump has been so cordial toward Putin. The media wonders about contacts between the Trump administration and the Russians prior to Trump's inauguration. The media notes how Russia is currently moving aggressively on the world stage. The media notes that America's traditional allies are unsettled about indications of new stance that America now seem to be taking in the world. In light of all of that however, the mainstream media has still not directly been asking the glaring underlying question, just why was it so important to Vladimir Putin that Donald Trump become President of the United States, and what, given that, does it mean to the strategic interests of our own nation now that Trump is?

[SharonAnn]

1. I think it was first to prevent Hillary from becoming POTUS, Then Trump became

an advantage for them.

[Tom Rinaldo]

2. Given the risk associated with being caught hacking our election

why did they meddle that deeply? What potential advantage made it worth it? What did they think they can get from a Prescient Trump that a President Clinton would have thwarted? I see possible ominous answers to those questions - but the media so far have held back on spelling it out.

[flamingdem]

3. Artic drilling and related billions

Ukraine and other border countries

Syria and its port

Oil and oil and power

[Tom Rinaldo]

4. And unraveling of NATO - more fuel for the rise of Rightist autocrats throughout Europe etc.

There are plenty of motives. My point is that the question itself has been glossed over by the media. Our intelligence services concluded that the Russian's conducted a high level coordinated campaign to pick who our next President would be. Unprecedented. But there has been very little discussion of why Putin so clearly wanted Trump to be President - to the point of risking, minimally, all out mutual cyber warfare over it. We talk about it more here than all of the Sunday news talk programs combined. Who has been asking congressional leaders bluntly "Why did Putin want Trump to win so badly that he was willing to intervene in internal American affairs so aggressively to achieve that end?"

[flamingdem]

5. Putin is desperate as seen by his actions in Crimea

and their economy was in a nose dive in large part due to US sanctions.

His actions in Syria are to gain access to the port and his alliances.

I feel like this is the known background so it's not much discussed. Am not really sure what answer you seek beyond that.

[Tom Rinaldo]

8. Personally I seek the discussion - the answers follow naturally

The news is not what Russia wants and why, it is why they think Trump will help them get it.

I seek the discussion in national public political circles. I want Republicans in Congress especially to be asked that exact basic question; Why did Putin care that much about electing Trump? I want voters who don't track national politics and international news closely to hear the question phrased that simply, and to think about possible answers to it. It will help undermine our Republican regime, and rightfully so.

By the way I don't see Putin's Crimean move as desperation. I think it was more simply expansionist and nationalist. I think Putin really does see his place in history as restoring glory to the Russian empire, and it consolidates his power base to appeal to nationalistic sentiments for a Greater Russia.

[Orrex]

6. According to the message I'm seeing catapulted all over social media...

President Hillary Clinton would already have invaded Syria and Russia, so obviously Putin favors the candidate who won't aggressively attack is completely innocent and noble country.

[GliderGuider]

7. He wants to re-align the world's power structure with Russia as Eurasian hegemon.

In order to do that he has to take the US off the global playing field and destroy the EU. He has made a very good start at both. The money and the power flow from that restructuring.

Aleksandr Dugin's geopolitical thoughts are the key. This has been discussed extensively. Here is a Wiki excerpt from Dugin's magnum opus:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundations_of_Geopolitics
In the United States:

Russia should use its special forces within the borders of the United States to fuel instability and separatism, for instance, provoke "Afro-American racists". Russia should "introduce geopolitical disorder into internal American activity, encouraging all kinds of separatism and ethnic, social and racial conflicts, actively supporting all dissident movements – extremist, racist, and sectarian groups, thus destabilizing internal political processes in the U.S. It would also make sense simultaneously to support isolationist tendencies in American politics."

Does that sound somewhat familiar?

Here are two DU threads pull back from "parochial political punditry" to present the overarching global picture. It's a picture that clearly shows the existential-level danger the West is now in - a complex danger of which the Shitgibbon Catastrophe is only one facet (albeit an important one, especially for you Yanks.)

The beginning of the end? by AlexSFCA
and
Overview of the Trump/Russia collusion and timeline by IamFortunesFool

By all means pay attention to the political maneuvering in Washington, but don't get lost in it. While those maneuvers are crucial to the fate of America, there is also a much bigger geopolitical game being played. That is where you'll find Putin's motives.

[2naSalit]

9. +10000000000000000000000000000000000!

[Tom Rinaldo]

10. I tend to agree with the sweep of what you wrote and also referenced

What it is happening inside the United States can not be viewed separately from forces at wok inside Europe. And when there are coordinated efforts to undermine formal and unofficial democratic institutions throughout both Europe and the United States, then the entire underpinning for the concept of liberal democracies as a model for governments world wide is under attack. That is the game Russia is now playing and our President has become a potential Trump card for them. The later is only one part of the larger discussion that must take place, but it is a natural starting point for broad public discussion inside of America. "Why did Russia try to pick our next President"

I offer only one positive comment on the first bleak OP you linked to: "The beginning of the end?" While I concur with much that was written there, this particular observation made there is now subject to dispute:

"Trump has his CIA, NSA, FBI, AG, etc. at his disposal."

That is no longer so fully self evident. He is facing some resistance in those quarters.

[GliderGuider]

11. Yes, Trump's position looked stronger then than it does now.

However, he still has at least the FBI NY field office (perhaps not the CI group though) and the AG.

Putin may have to settle for "just" significant social disruption this time around. That's OK by him - he plays the long game, and the Deplorables aren't going anywhere. Unless the US manages to get Big Corp money out of media, education and politics, and re-orients the signalling from those systems, the situation is going to get worse (and easier to exploit) over time. To counter that deteriorating trend you will need to undo 45 years of effects from the Powell Memo, and repeal Citizens United. Once that is done, in a generation and a half you may get your nation back.

Unfortunately, just to complicate matters I don't think the natural systems of the world are going to allow you that much time. Climate change and ecological collapse are already under way.