"By Any Means Necessary..."

Do you still believe the allegations that Trump colluded with Russia, or that he was in Putin's pocket, or that he was compromised by our old adversary, or that Russia tried to influence the 2016 election by nefarious means? Do you hold onto these beliefs despite the very clear and even-now growing evidence that this collusion narrative was a deliberate fabrication? That it was advanced by people who had enough reason and evidence to know it was a fabrication? That people who should by default be skeptical of all things government deliberately ignored all the telltales that it was a fabrication?

Behold, cognitive dissonance. The human brain is wired to prefer consistency over correctness, and we often pretzel our rational thinking to extremes rather than admit that what we wanted to be true, what we first thought was true, or what we were first told was true turned out to be wrong. The "why" of this is tied to human evolution, and for today's purposes doesn't matter as much as the fact of it.

That fact of it - the reality and ubiquity of cognitive dissonance - is well understood by sociopaths, manipulators, narcissists, and politicians (but I repeat myself). It is relied on, cynically and effectively, to grab hearts and minds and to build resistance to rational rebuttal by others.

Today, as we learn more and more about the breadth and depth of the collusion hoax - yes, it was a hoax - we see another form of reliance on cognitive dissonance. A great many of the people who breathlessly reported and repeated the collusion narrative are now downplaying it, retconning their parts in it, or trying to shrug it off as old news and pointless past history.

Why?

Because it would make them uncomfortable to admit they were wrong or complicit or both, but also because it doesn't serve their political ends. Those ends are why they ran with the hoax in the first place, which tells us all we need to know about them: that in their worldview the ends justify the means. Advancing a dubious claim about Trump is useful even if it's not true, because it hampered the guy they didn't vote for.

This will be defended with excuses along the line of "Trump is so uniquely bad that he had to be stopped," and many will believe that because it fulfills their existing biases. Doesn't matter that every prominent person they don't like is saddled with similar assertions and excuses to justify extraordinary - and sometimes extralegal - action.

Remember when GWBush was called "Hitler?" I do.

Trump's actual pros and cons are not the issue here - it's the "any means necessary" validation of lies and dirty tricks that is.

And when the heroes of the past start appearing guilty of participating in the deceit (looking at you, Obama), the dissonance gets tinged with panic. Panic about tainted and lost legacies, panic about loss of power or influence or trust, panic about the other team getting benefit.

It has been said many times that, in politics, the coverup is worse than the crime. In this case, we have to add the caveat "for who?" Because it is certainly terrible for the parties involved, but actually a good thing for the rest of us. If this sordid episode breaks people's trust in government, if it elevates skepticism back to where it should be, then the conspirators actually did the nation a long-run favor. They exposed their own moral bankruptcy, and by extension the moral bankruptcy of all who played along. If they want our trust back, they'll have to go to extraordinary lengths to get it.

Finally, to what end? The residuals of the initial collusion conspiracy hampered Trump's first term, and probably cost him re-election in 2020. But, they also set the stage for his comeback, and contributed to the devil-may-care tone of this current term. Had he won in 2020, he'd likely have continued with his "please the beltway" personnel picks, and in any event he'd be out of office now and we'd probably have a Democratic President. Instead, the Democratic Party is in shambles, public trust of government is extremely low, legacy media is collapsing due to similar lack of trust, Trump is in full, unfettered, wild-man mode, and the long-term outcome from the Left's perspective is worse than it would otherwise have been.

Nice job, guys.

I’m not being entirely sarcastic.

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I wrote this piece several days ago. Since then, more damning evidence, including some that puts Hillary Clinton right in the center of it all, is emerging.

Realize this. No matter your opinion of Trump, his victory is the only reason we are learning any of this. Otherwise, it would have been quashed, buried, kiboshed, what-difference-at-this-point-does-it-maked. While modern progressivism and “woke” now consider truth itself “right-wing,” exposure of all these shenanigans is absolutely vital if this nation is to avoid becoming a banana republic with a ruling class forever lying to the peasants as it does what it wants.