While Madsen correctly reminds us of the history of the CIA interfering in elections of other countries, he is mistaken by thinking that they are interfering with "democracy". His error is clearly expressed in the final two sentences of the article.
The CIA is now directing its wealth of election chicanery toward the American electorate to discredit and undermine the legitimacy of the Trump presidency. For the sake of democracy everywhere, the CIA must be abolished.I don't know of any genuine democratic elections taking place anywhere in the world or in history with the possible exception of those in the classic period of Athens. But these were tarnished by the fact that Athenians practiced widespread slavery. I've read estimates that 50% of their population were slaves taken in many of their wars. The fact that elections are confused with the practice of democracy is one of the biggest cons (def. #4) of all time.
Elections have been used (and abused) to support the legitimacy of capitalist class rule ever since this class wrestled power from feudal authorities. One must keep in mind how elections serve this class rule, and how other preceding ruling classes used other devices to prop up their rule. Let's briefly review this history.
Capitalism has been superimposed on feudal societies by the rising power of a new class of "owners" of productive property when new forms of power (water, coal, fossil fuels) drove machines operated by workers. Feudal economies were based on a primitive kind of agriculture in which workers (serfs) were tied to the land and controlled by aristocracies and monarchs. Feudal authorities used religious authorities to ideologically support their rule ("divine right" in European countries). This ruling class conveniently ignored, and made their subjects forget, that their class were the descendants of warrior bands who took the lands by violence from small substance farmers.
The present arrangement, under the rule of capitalists, is no more legitimate than the first rulers whose rule were founded on violence and intimidation. The only difference is the application of self-serving propaganda used by these ruling class to add a veneer of respectability or legitimacy to their rule. Elections as well as propaganda serve this purpose. Having a choice between evil people, or those who support the ruling capital class has become de rigueur in capitalist societies, and is touted as "democracy". With their control of very sophisticated ideological institutions in education, media, and entertainment, this ruling class have most people believing that having a choice between two people who serve the interests of capitalists somehow represents democracy. Just as astounding is how they are able to use secret, unaccountable agencies like the CIA, that are advertised as protecting the security of the nation, to hoodwink people. But have you noticed that in case all these methods don't work, they are fully prepared to use violence and intimidation against their own populations?
True democracy can only be attained when all of the people participate meaningfully in decisions over every aspect of their lives, and control over the economy is the most important of all. Capitalism, which inevitably concentrates economic property in the hands of ever fewer people, is one of the greatest evils of all time. Private ownership of the economy must be abolished forever before any kind of meaningful democracy can be established.
What we might infer from all the present hysterical controversy over the recent election outcome is that there is a split between factions of our ruling class. But I don't think we can be even certain of that simply because the latter always rule by deception. It could be argued that the CIA is only appearing to undermine Trump's election to hide the fact of a change of major strategy to confront the power of Russia and China into one of driving a wedge between them. It could be that our ruling masters are engaged in an elaborate attempt to hide this new strategy behind a controversy over the election. Evidence to support this theory could be supported if all the present hullabaloo is simply allowed to diminish over time and subsequent events show that our masters are warming up to Russia and acting more aggressively in their relations with China.
I'm not arguing that this is the case, what I'm arguing is that we don't know what our masters are doing simply because they are chronic liars and deceivers. Instead of wasting our time trying to figure out what they are really up to, we should be preparing to overturn their rule, not only of our nation, but the entire world before their misrule ends in our extinction.