Historically, the most horrific attacks on America have come from half a world away.
America’s enemies bombed U.S. navy ships at Pearl Harbor, collapsed the World Trade Center’s twin towers, smashed a hole in the Pentagon, and would have shattered the Capitol Dome except for the midair heroics of a handful of America’s best.
Now our enemies have hit us where the rest of us live. And yet we aren’t even sure who our real enemies are.
Our news screens are bombarding us with an onslaught of lies that are intended to shatter Americans’ faith in our seemingly once-indestructible constitutional democracy. That’s just what Russia’s Vladimir Putin wanted when, as U.S. intelligence warned us, he ordered cyber-sabotage of U.S. elections in an attempt to elect and re-elect Donald Trump. Now Putin is thrilled that Trump is saying what could be Kremlin talking points – his false claim that he was re-elected in a landslide that was stolen. And tremulous Republicans now parrot his lies.
But Putin isn’t our democracy’s real problem – and frankly, neither is Trump. Our problem can be found a lot closer to home.