In the newsletter that arrived in my inbox this week from Congressman Derek Kilmer, he made note of his input in the recent funding bill that will ensure that “the FEC will have to send Congress a report to show how it is enforcing the election laws that make it illegal for foreign countries to spend money in American elections.”

The perpetual refusal to acknowledge the historical and ongoing criminal behavior of the U.S. government – including interference in electoral politics of sovereign nations around the globe – is pitiable. Especially when it comes from our elected officials, whom we look to for honest appraisals of the current state of affairs. We can’t fix what we deny is broken.

According to its own data, the U.S. has interfered in foreign elections at least 81 times, just between 1946 and 2000. (See tinyurl.com/y7b8z2e7.) 

Obviously, that doesn’t include the most recent examples in Afghanistan, Iraq, Egypt, Ukraine, Syria, Yemen and others, nor the scores of instances prior to 1946. That figure also does not include assassinations, nor invasions and coups the U.S. has undertaken, since 1890 alone. (See tinyurl.com/y7kxzxqs.)

Noam Chomsky sums up U.S. domination and hypocrisy succinctly: “The democratic ideal, at home and abroad, is simple and straightforward: You are free to do what you want, as long as it is what we want you to do.”  (See tinyurl.com/zf5ntbz.)

I call on Congressman Kilmer to take a mirror to Congress, have a good look, then muster some courage and do the right thing.