The rise of paranoid politics could make America ungovernable – and the FBI is fuelling the fire

[applegrove]

The rise of paranoid politics could make America ungovernable – and the FBI is fuelling the fire

by Juliet Samuel at the Telegraph

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/10/30/the-fbi-is-helping-to-fuel-the-paranoid-politics-which-are-makin/

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Why, then, did a seasoned operator like Mr Comey, whose judiciousness was praised by the Clinton campaign through the summer, feel the need to divulge this half-baked and potentially insignificant development before assessing it? There is one answer: fear of the mob. The director of the FBI – those tough guys who smash in doors and shoot people – was scared that if he didn’t talk now and the news leaked out, it would confirm every conspiracy theory going about how the agency was in the Clintons’ pocket.

In other words, we’ve reached a point in the politics of the world’s most powerful democracy where the appearance of probity matters more than the reality. Mr Comey isn’t worried about being held to account by institutional norms and policies. He’s worried about being judged in the court of public opinion, where the mood has reached such a feverish, conspiratorial pitch that nothing is sacred any more. Mr Trump ferments this fury and suspicion every time he opens his mouth. In Trump World, Barack Obama might have been born abroad, global warming is probably a Chinese plot to harm the US economy and elections are rigged by Clinton cronies. Conversely, the peddlers of anti-Western plots – Russia, Wikileaks – might have a point. What matters is not the credibility of any source, but whose side it’s on and how its information can be weaponised.

Adams cartoon for October 31, 2016, showing a modified version of the official seal of the FBI. In place of its 'scales of justice' emblem are a pair of real scales, in which sit a jubilant Donald Trump and a less-than-pleased Hillary Clinton. From behind the seal a faceless FBI agent wearing sunglasses, a black suit, and an earpiece leans out and 'tips' the scales, dragging Clinton downward.

This is politics as warfare: everything is subsumed to the ultimate, all-consuming aim of victory. Vicious political battles aren’t new, but they usually obey commonly accepted rules, like the idea that being caught in a direct lie is an enormous embarrassment or that the outcome of an election should be respected unless there’s solid evidence of fraud. These rules help democracies function. Without them, leaders lie with impunity and voters don’t vote.

Of course, some lying politicians and lazy citizens will always be with us. But by and large, it’s only the paranoids or haters of the West who believe its democracies are so rotten they must be torn down. The FBI has fallen into the trap of thinking that these subversive forces can be tamed by reasonableness and integrity. In fact, institutional recognition of paranoias achieves the opposite. It proves to the conspiracy theorist that he was right all along. The FBI was lying, and now they’ve had to admit it!



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