While zero evidence exists that Team Trump colluded with the Russians to swing the 2016 election, a long history exists of American politicians plotting with Moscow for political advantage. The problem, where the current narrative is concerned, that all of the politicians in questions were Democrats, according to the Daily Wire
Democrats plot with the Soviets to stop Reagan
Jimmy Carter, when he was running for reelection against Ronald Reagan in 1980, reached out to the Soviets through his friend pro-Russian businessman Armand Hammer. The deal was that Moscow would allow more Jewish dissidents to immigrate to Israel and Carter would take the credit, which would help him in “certain states.” Reagan was elected anyway in that election.
In 1984, when Reagan was running for reelection against former Vice President Walter Mondale, two liberal Democrats colluded with Moscow to try to undermine him. Then Sen. Teddy Kennedy contacted the Russians in order to try to present the Soviet Union as more “peaceful” than Reagan had been describing them.
Previously, when Kennedy was running against Jimmy Carter in 1980, he offered to condemn Carter’s Afghanistan policy in exchange for Moscow’s help. Then Speaker of the House Tip O’Neil told then Soviet Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Dobrynin that a Soviet-Democratic alliance would be in everyone’s best interest to stop Reagan from starting a nuclear war.
These efforts failed, and Reagan went on to win the Cold War and place the Soviet Union on the ash heap of history.
Post-Soviet collusion
After the fall of the Soviet Union, Democrats continued to collude with Moscow for political advantage. In 1996, the President Bill Clinton promised to support then Russian President Boris Yeltsin if he would be more forthcoming in a poultry trade dispute.
Since lots of poultry is processed in Clinton’s native Arkansas, this deal would constitute petty corruption more than behavior that Democrats are claiming is treason.
Then there is the infamous conversation that then President Barack Obama had with then Russian President Dmitry Medvedev during the 2012 election cycle. The deal was if Russia were to give him some space, Obama would be inclined to be more flexible once he was reelected.
Obama would go on to ridicule his opponent Mitt Romney for claiming that Russia was America’s primary threat during a debate.
However, Obama was reelected, and Russia took full advantage of his flexibility by invading the Ukraine and running rampant in Syria.
One can, therefore, be forgiven that when the Democrats are accusing Trump of a secret alliance with Russia, they are projecting. The irony is that no evidence exists that Trump did anything like Democrats have for the past 37 years or so, sometimes when the Soviet Union was an enemy of the United States.
