All I have is theory based off of Russian doctrine, our history, and my professional experience working such issues. During the Cold War, Soviets influenced our society directly and indirectly. The college youth of the Cold War era are our leaders today. I am NOT suggesting that our leaders are Russian agents. I am merely suggesting a lot of the leftist ideas in our society today we likely planted during the Cold War as apart of a long term strategy of the Russians.

I believe that most issues in the world can be tied back in some way to the most powerful countries in the world in their competition for supremacy in the world. For example, if you cut all the religious bullshit out of the middle east conflicts, you'll see a competition between the west (mostly the U.S.) and Russia. The religious issue is simply the shiny object.

Anyways, I've been drinking, so this isn't as concise as I normally would write. On the more direct side, when you look at people like Ana Montes, is it all that difficult to think that there could be strategic assets with long term placement within the U.S. government? I don't think it is common, but I'm not ignorant either.

This sounds pretty conspiracy theorist, and it should in some ways. If people think that nations don't conspire against other nations, they are extremely naive. The U.S. even publicizes that we sanction "covert action" which for the most part people think involves some kind of gun and a target, but often likely involves steps to influence things in a foreign nation to the benefit of the U.S.

I'm not saying I have moral objections to these practices. I'm simply saying I think the vast majority of people don't realize there's an entire world outside of the U.S. Even a lot of people on the right don't realize the implications of the world. A small example, many individuals, such as myself, are strong proponents of the 2nd Amendment, because we believe it ensures our freedom. If there's ever another civil war in the U.S. there will be so much foreign influence it isn't even fucking funny. You can best believe competing nations would have their special operations and intelligence services working to ensure the side they desired would win.

Anyways, so yeah, there's more to the world and our politics than simply "Democrats and Republicans". It doesn't help that we are so multi cultured these days that we have a much harder time doing counterintelligence than other countries. That's the price of freedom though.