I was watching media coverage of Hillary's convention speech this morning, and what was more disturbing than the way it was being characterized was what came immediately after it -- a segue to a lede about whether "a new cold war is about to begin."
This wasn't Fox News. I think it was CNN, but I was switching around. What's disturbing about it is both the fact that the media is more than willing to take their narratives from conservative talking points if it makes for a good cock fight, and that it is so incredibly wrong.
Something needs to be done to make sure this election does not become a referendum on a hugely outdated model of Russia.
The debate over the debate is pretty clear. Conservatives are trying to make it about security, liberals about the economy. No surprise there. But we would be wise not to ignore this adoption of the conservative narrative on Russia.
It's an old strategy, right? Play to old Russian stereotypes. It's what Bush II did in the 2000 campaign, promising to make Russia a competitor -- and then that backfired, and then Bush saw into Putin's soul, and that emboldened Russia to do what it's now done. The truth is, if there is a new cold war brewing, it was begun by conservative Americans who were thinking far more about how to cajole votes than they were about security.
What's amazing about the Georgia situation is that it's a dramatic reversal of the cold war. It's Georgia, it seems, that is trying to make itself into a Soviet-style country, amassing "satellite" regions within itself. And it's Russia that seems to be wanting to preserve local identities, and acknowledge small regions to preserve individual cultures. So the idea that Russia is trying to assimilate Georgia not only misses the point -- it turns the point upside-down.
And this isn't simply an error -- it's a calculated effort to resurrect the Russian bogeyman and frighten American voters with it. Russia is not knocking on our doorstep. They didn't start a war -- they reacted to one we ignored. McCain claims that in the twenty-first century countries don't invade other sovereign countries, which describes perfectly well what we did in Iraq.
This is a narrative that is building behind all the convention coverage. It would be unwise to ignore it.