A Republican Russian declaration and the deafening silence that followed from the right

Dick Cheney, former Vice President of the United States of America, a Republican war hawk with war criminal allegations tied to his name, declared that the country was practically at war with Russia regarding all the political and democratic dysfunction and looming evidence after the 2016 US Federal Election. No, it was not a mocking decree. No it wasn’t an allegation against the media.  Read the context yourself:

“There was a very serious effort made by Mr. Putin and his government, his organization, to interfere in major ways with our basic, fundamental democratic processes,” […]”In some quarters that would be considered an act of war.”

— March 27, 2017

Dick Cheney said this last year. Dick Cheney, a firm member of the Republican Party and someone who has been involved in US government in one fashion or another for decades. To say he’s educated by experience is an understatement. Even on the sidelines, the man has connections to be in-the-know.

A high-ranking member of the political right in America said it and the current reigning position of all too many in the Grand Old Party is to cast doubt, mar, impend and stand against the notion that the Russian Federation had anything of malice against these United States and the 2016 federal election.

And those taking the stance against the ongoing investigations by the House of Representatives, the US Senate and Special Counsel Robert Mueller can crow that Cheney isn’t out there pushing the notion any more. No one of stature on the political right is calling foul on the public record or repeatedly.

This isn’t a partisan issue. There are too many other incidents with the current Presidential administration. This is a matter of United States National Security, it’s been breached and it has been compromised at the highest level of government. The unbalanced state of the Executive Branch impairs US government and we see that play out too often.

Yet the silence, the Party First rhetoric that keeps those on the sidelines in-check and that hurts more. It lets the doubt fester, it lets the conspiracy theories muster and keeps honesty and truth out of reach to the casual ranks of politically active Americans who stand on the political right and who will not doubt their votes. The silence is an excuse: Why believe there’s been anything wrong when the only ones stating it are on the political left or the media with their politically stereotypical liberal bias?

Dick Cheney said this, that the Russian Federation meddling in 2016 was an act of war. That’s not a partisan game, that wasn’t a belated endorsement of Hillary Clinton. That was a warning flare shot fired regarding the welfare of the United States of America. If only the observation or concern was repeated by a multitude in politics that shed party ideology in favor of nationalism… The excuse making rhetoric and political warping of the story and damning evidence would not be sullied nor dismissed in favor of partisan dominance.

We can get back to the partisan game and ideological drive when things have been secured, and I don’t mean with a wall built on the borders. That’s not where the nation has been compromised in the most damning of ways.

EDIT February 11, 2018: Another notable Republican, the 43rd President of these United States, is now on record speaking about Russian meddling in the 2016 Presidential elections. Two very notable men.