Woocoodanode

Robby Mook makes a point I've been trying to make for some time now.  These "revelations" from Mueller are not really revelations at all.  They add, perhaps, some more evidence to the already heaping piles of evidence of what Democrats were saying in 2016: Russia wanted Trump to win, Trump wanted Russian help, they conspired together to help him win.  As Mook points out, this was the consensus of the cyber-intelligence community.  As we also know, Mitch McConnell - arguably a worse human being than Donald Trump - effectively blocked the report from the DNI that would have shared this information with the voting public

We knew all this in 2016.

As Mook points out, we have been fucked over by "Both Sides" journalism. There was an example this weekend of how persistent and pervasive "Both Sides" is.  Chuck Todd, the spirit of Both Sides made flesh to walk amongst us, was reporting on the unprecedented efforts by Republicans in Wisconsin and Michigan to strip a newly elected Democratic governor of much of his power.  He concluded by saying that Democrats have done the same thing when they have been in the same situation.  This is bullshit.  The only time I can remember anything similar was when a Democratic governor took in North Carolina two years ago.  This is part of a concerted effort by Republicans to thwart democracy, because they are losing the support of a majority of voters.  There is no Democratic equivalent.

Back in 2016, any accusation against Trump had to be balanced by an accusation against Clinton.  If Trump was on tape bragging about sexual assault, what about Clinton's emails?  If Trump was apparently in cahoots with Wikileaks, what about Uranium One?  If Trump defrauded Trump University students and contractors, while using his charity as a slush fund, what about the Clinton Foundation.

Look, I've engaged in Both Sides when I teach.  I get the impulse to be impartial, to try not to take sides.  But the past two years, I've given up.  Yes, I reach for a John Kasich or John McCain or Lisa Murkowski to try and show "not all Republicans."  I try and make a case for Burkean Conservatism, because there's real merit there.  But there is no way to look at Trump and McConnell's Republican Party, remain objective and say: "Both Sides."

The depressing fact is that American liberals have been right far more often than they have been wrong.  Right about Iraq.  Right about tax cuts.  Right about deregulation.  Right about Trump.  History has shown this to be true.  And we are right about income inequality and global warming, too.

But it won't matter, as long as everything is framed as a binary story where each side is given value because of the nature of American journalism.