slate - "America Last . Trump will choose his ego over democracy every time.
by Jamelle Bouie
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2017/07/why_trump_doesn_t_care_about_russian_election_interference.html
By all appearances, Donald Trump isn’t too concerned about Russian government meddling in the 2016 presidential election. He has repeatedly downplayed the significance or denied the existence of that meddling, and refuses to hold Russia accountable for its actions—instead proposing and walking back a cybersecurity partnership with the perpetrator while still toying with the idea of reducing sanctions. “I strongly pressed President Putin twice about Russian meddling in our election. He vehemently denied it. I’ve already given my opinion,” said Trump on Twitter, all but reiterating his basic indifference, even as his director of national intelligence, Dan Coats, says just the opposite. “I think it’s publicly known and acknowledged and accepted that Russia definitely did try to influence the campaign,” he said during his confirmation hearing in February, affirming the point in May when he testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee.
It may not have affected the final outcome, but Russian election interference—by way of hacking and selected leaks—is a genuine assault on the institutions of the United States. It demands official recognition that such actions are intolerable. We have this response from Congress, and we have it from key members of the political establishment. We don’t have it from the president of the United States.
From any other president, this disinterest would be shocking. From Trump, it is true to form. Yes, some of this may reflect the extent to which he is potentially implicated by Russian interference. The latest revelations on that score involve his son Donald Trump Jr. as well as Paul Manafort (his then–campaign chairman) and Jared Kushner, his son-in-law. According to the New York Times, Trump’s eldest son arranged a meeting at Trump Tower between the group and a Russian lawyer with ties to the Kremlin, who had promised Trump Jr. damaging information about Hillary Clinton. If true, and the eldest Trump child has essentially confirmed it, the meeting increases the questions about possible collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government. Under these circumstances, it is no surprise that the president has little interest in pursuing this story or even condemning the reality of said interference.
At no point in his time on the public stage has Trump shown an appreciation for the values of Western democracy.
But there’s more than simple self-interest at work. Ultimately, to care about Russian electoral interference is to want to safeguard the integrity of the democratic process and maintain trust in our system of elections. Without that trust—the belief that our votes matter—democracy can’t work. To get to the point where you care, however, you need to have an underlying concern for democracy and its institutions. You have to have a commitment to the values—among them pluralism and political liberalism—at stake. There are politicians who meet that criteria. Donald Trump is not one of them.
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