Surreal: Trump, Russian Hacking and Life Imitates Art

There’s an old saying about a person who is too close, too involved in a situation to see it as it really is. It is often said that they can’t see the forest for the trees. As we put 2016 behind us and approach the January 20th inauguration of now President Elect Donald Trump I can’t help but sense that many of my dear neighbours to the south are themselves too close to the situation to see what may be happening.

Is life imitating art?

The Merriam-Webster word of the year for 2016 is surreal, based on the number of times it was researched on their site. I find what is happening in the United States almost unbelievable, but worse the fact that no one seems to be doing anything about it is indeed surreal.

I suspect that had someone written a geopolitical espionage best seller about Russia infiltrating the electoral process of the United States in an effort to alter the outcome by having their candidate elected against all odds it would be quickly pointed out that it was a work of fiction and could never actually occur. Yet by many accounts that is precisely what happened last November. Is life imitating art?

Is it possible that the whole Donald Trump candidacy and election are part of a long thought out plot to merge the two countries into a super-superpower?

Is it possible that the whole Donald Trump candidacy and election are part of a long thought out plot to merge the two countries into a super-superpower? Is Trump Putin’s man in Washington? They sure seem to be buddies. Trump is a businessman who makes no bones about his ability to make deals. Can this be the biggest deal of his life? One that would see the United States succumb to Russia.

If Trump was being his usual bombastic self and rooting President Obama on in his expelling of Russian diplomats it would be more normal. But he seems to side with the Russians at every turn, even after all have pointed out the Russian meddling.

The whole election campaign and outcome seem surreal, but no less surreal, at least when viewed from a few steps back, is the apparent lack of reaction to this egregious act by Russia on a sovereign nation’s democracy.

But worse is the media approach which is to fall all over themselves in an effort to stifle any notion that the hacking had any influence on the election outcome.

The whole election campaign and outcome seem surreal, but no less surreal, at least when viewed from a few steps back, is the apparent lack of reaction to this egregious act by Russia on a sovereign nation’s democracy. I write apparent because of course I have no insight into the secret workings of the US government.

DCMontreal – Deegan Charles Stubbs – is a Montreal writer born and raised who likes to establish balance and juxtapositions; a bit of this and a bit of that, a dash of Yin and a soupçon of Yang, some Peaks and an occasional Frean and maybe a bit of a sting in the tail! Please follow DCMontreal on Twitter and on Facebook, and add him on Google+