To the OP. I would be perfectly happy if MAGA’s lost their shit if they finally discover that Trump had help from the Russians. Just what are they gonna do?
Are the Trump supporters gonna get mad that their president got help from a hostile government? Are they gonna get mad at Mitch for blocking bills that would help to prevent this from happening again?
Trump supporters are unreachable. They are the proverbial ‘cut off your nose to spite your face’. I don’t care about them anymore. A decent health care system would help them greatly, but if that means that their God was wrong, they won’t want it. They are idiots.
If Trump supporters can tag along on better policies that will help them. That’s fine. Thinking people do try to help everyone.
I regret I was unclear. I’m not a bit worried about the damage done by the injury of disillusionment. I’m worried that they will see it as a monster of fake news, cooked up by Soros and Clinton to bring down Himself, Il Douche, Savior of His Country. And some of them will react with violence. Super dooper ungood.
(I’ve just finished watching Netflix’s documentary about Cambridge Analytica, Bannon, and Trump. Stunning. Many of us won’t learn a lot that we didn’t know, but I doubt any of us won’t learn anything at all. Maybe five years ago, I would not have believed it was possible. That was then, and this is now. Some of the villains were British, some Russian. Most were, at least nominally, American. And some others were very smart people who weren’t quite smart enough. See it. Very yes.)
Russians are going to meddle regardless of what Trump did. That’s what foreign governments do. Right now think about how much infiltration the Chinese have. Think of the money that gets to the political class from the corporate class that originates in China and is used to promote policy that benefits China. Are we stopping that? Nope.
If we want to end foreign influence in American politics we need to treat security, border security, and corruption seriously. Since it benefits the political class we won’t. Again, the primary reason the Russian collusion is so outrageous is that your girl got beat.
Now, that said, I am not a fan of foreign manipulation but outside of becoming a police state it’s impossible to prevent the manipulation if it’s manifested as publications or broadcasts.
If your system is not robust enough to deny a snake-oil salesman, with a little help from autocrats, a seat at the top, you should just pretend it didn’t happen.
It is legal for countries to advertise in favor of a candidate. China was free to and did do so during the campaign. Russia has now, similarly, introduced an organization in the US that performs legal political advocacy for their preferred candidates.
The restriction is simply that they make it public that they are a foreign nation when they advertise, don’t commit fraud at any point, and don’t work in cooperation with an American campaign.
To a large extent, these same restrictions apply to American Super PACs as well. Free speech is legal. Fraud is illegal. Coordination with a campaign is illegal. Hacking is illegal. Breaking and entering is illegal. A campaign can’t offshore the White House Plumbers and avoid the law.
Free speech doesn’t include theft, fraud, nor libel. And, for political purposes, you have to be open and honest about who you are.
And if the goal is to undermine faith in the democratic process itself, the simple knowledge that Russia has accessed our voting systems goes a long way toward accomplishing that even if they didn’t do anything.
You’re entirely missing the point. Yes, foreign governments will try to interfere. That has always happened. What has not happened before, at least in this country, is the active encouragement to do it by our own politicians for their own political and/or selfish gain.
You’re correct that we can’t control what foreign governments may choose to do – although with politicians who have our country’s interests at heart we can sure make them feel punishment for it. But we damn well can make sure our own politicians are not actively working to allow foreign interests to subvert our electoral process.
It does not matter a whit which side it benefits. For any politician who is a citizen of this nation, it is a betrayal to use and encourage foreign intervention to “win.” It is outrageous, and it has nothing to do with our “girl” getting beat.
Nonsense. It’s about protection. By your “logic” Americans shouldn’t complain if someone dropped a couple of nuclear bombs on their country simply because of what happened in 1945.