Watching the current hysteria over suspected Russian tampering with this past presidential election, I’m foremost struck by how deep xenophobic fear-mongering still runs in American politics. Secondly, I’m continually appalled at the hypocrisy of those that practice it yet point fingers at the other side of the aisle.

Here in Maine’s Cool Little City, our recent parade celebrating the founding of this great nation was reportedly marred by the warm-up emcee’s embarrassing choice of a “French” joke. Not very cool. Not the end of the world, but sadly not the end of a once prevalent stereotyping and ridicule of those of French descent, a heritage shared by many Mainers, a heritage reflecting a country that was America’s closest ally during our revolt against the British. Bath’s “Heritage Days” needn’t parade any remnants of Maine’s shameful Francophobic past, a history all the more perplexing in that Maine’s very name is likely derived from that of the French province.

Despite being a nation created and sustained by diverse immigration, America in general and Maine in particular still act as if an Anglo dominance is a destined entitlement.

America continues to embrace a strange British reverence. Maine Public Television still openly genuflects to a BBC sensibility in appealing to what remains an ever loyal Anglophile base. Among the other basic-cable channels available, there’s another public television offering reflecting a predominantly non-Anglo enrichment of America. Comparison of the two always provides a striking takeaway that America’s “melting pot” needs the heat turned up.

America has a long history of xenophobia. Today’s Mexicans and Muslims are yesterday’s Italians, Irish or Chinese. The Trump administration’s Travel Ban is rightly criticized for its transparent appeal to a fear and hatred of Them. Ditto his notorious “Wall.” Those on the left are right and those on the right are all wrong regarding attempts to stereotype all for the actions of the few. Simplistic, yes. Simple, not really. At least not for those among our judiciary, or those still believing Trump was elected by irredeemable “deplorables.”

Meanwhile, heightening xenophobia of all things Russian has somehow escaped criticism from anyone outside the White House, which the mainstream media now routinely reports as being a de facto West Wing of the Kremlin. Russia is our sworn enemy. That’s seemingly the only thing Washington’s partisan divide isn’t at all divided on. Far worse than Saddam or bin Laden, Assad or Kim Jong-un, Vladimir Putin now reigns as the bogeyman du jour everyone can rally against. Even though his approval ratings within Russia average somewhere around 80%, here in America consensus holds that he’s a cold-blooded tyrant unjustifiably and unilaterally interfering in the internal politics of another world power’s sovereignty. That the U.S. has a long history of meddling in Russian elections, targeting Putin’s leadership in particular under Hillary Clinton’s purview as Secretary of State, is repeatedly ignored by mainstream media’s rush to judgment.

Nothing brings people together like a common enemy and President Trump certainly likes to take an adversarial position to all critics, right or left, of whatever motivation he has in pursuing a detente with Russia’s economic interests.

The Republican establishment is perfectly comfortable in reviving a blindly ideological Cold War while Democrats myopically view the Russia-Trump card as the best way to finally manage a take-down of our own democratically imposed despot, even more of a threat than Vladimir Putin himself though supposedly still Putin’s puppet lapdog. No one accuses Trump of being a communist mole. His heinous crime is in capitalizing on Russia’s own capitalist ambitions and sharing a disdain for Hillary Clinton.

Any association with Russia is considered unpatriotic or worse. Labeling that a McCarthy-like “Red Scare” is a preposterous accusation because Trump’s inarguably guilty, not falsely accused. Those that certified the existence of Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction have proof-almost-positive of Putin’s e-espionage hand in exposing the DNC’s undemocratic subversion of their own party’s nomination process.

My first exposure to Maine politics was being taught about Margaret Chase Smith’s heroic stand against McCarthyism. My second was the implosion of Edmund Muskie’s bid for the presidency, due to the false revelations of the “Canuck Letter” and the label of “Moscow Muskie,” as his opponents leveled the double whammy of Muskie being both a despicable Francophobe as well as a communist sympathizer.

Margaret Chase Smith famously stood up against a bully accomplished in the art of fear-mongering. Where would she stand today in a political arena where a similar Russophobia is being employed to undermine the election of a bully who successfully gained office by openly appealing to America’s still deeply rooted xenophobia?

Putin represents the Russian people no more so than Trump represents American values. Putin’s a very real bogeyman, definitely a bad guy, but Russia shouldn’t be made into a bogey-land for the sake of our own terrifying political train wreck.

Trump’s a political opportunist embarrassingly rewarded as our electoral college choice to make America great again while we continue infighting as to whom America really wants to be, because we so easily fall prey to media enabled hatred and fear of the political “other.”

Gary Anderson lives in Bath.