So I noticed after the DNC hacks, CNN and MSNBC and others have been pushing the story that the DNC email hacks were caused by Russian spies who want to influence elections and destabilize our country. I originally wrote a post with the attempt to debunk it, but after looking more closely at evidence, there is a stronger case to be made.
Cybersecurity experts are claiming Russian hackers infiltrated the system and left their fingerprints all over the place. While the official story seems to indicate that the hacker is a Romanian, there are doubts to his true identity. I'm really not sure. I looked at the evidence via google and I can't really come to a conclusion either way.
On the one hand, the Russians have a good reason to favor Trump over Clinton. Clinton is hawkish on foreign policy, while Trump is softer, less competent, and some of the things he wants to do would likely favor Russia immensely if he gets his way.
On the other hand, the Russia argument plays too well into the DNC and their media arms' hands. If I were the DNC or their media, I would want to downplay or distract people from paying attention to the leaks. And by blaming the big bad Russians, they have the perfect scapegoat to take the heat off of themselves and spin it around the other way. So an argument can be made from both sides.
Does it matter? Probably not. Quite frankly, I've been suspecting the DNC playing dirty for months before the leaks, and I acted under the assumption that they were. So the emails changed nothing for me. The fact is, in college, as a political science grad, I learned how to spot signs of authoritarianism in regimes. You can have a system that sounds fair on the surface, but when you start digging and looking at how things work and who the power players are, these systems often clearly become rigged in favor of a certain party or dictator. Did you know communist Cuba has elections? There's only one party, the communist party, and they win all the elections with nearly 100% of the vote. But yeah. They have elections. And if we want to talk about Russia, what about Putin and his cronies stuffing ballot boxes? Didn't he win that one election with 140% of the vote or something?
In authoritarian regimes, elections are political theater intended to distract the populace and give them the impression they have a choice when it's really an illusion. All their choices are carefully picked out for them, they're pushed, and dissidents are marginalized or even jailed/killed (Russia is, once again, a good example of this, just look at how many people who criticize Putin end up dead).
We're not a full on authoritarian regime in America, but I think that this election has exposed the oligarchical underbelly on American democracy in ways that are deeply disturbing for a country that so highly values freedom and democracy. The candidacy of Bernie Sanders has essentially shown to me that the system is rigged, that the elites choose the candidates, that the people don't have a real choice, and that anyone serious about changing the system gets eaten alive by that very same system when they try. I didn't need leaked emails to figure this out. Although the emails tend to make the case stronger.
That being said, to me, it doesn't matter who leaked it. I do NOT like the idea of Russia trying to influence our elections. Don't get me wrong. But at the end of the day, it doesn't change the facts that we have a serious problem in our electoral system that needs fixing. And the DNC is quite clearly a problem as it exists. They should have been impartial, and they shouldn't be trying to push a single narrative or browbeat us into supporting candidates that we don't want. We are free to vote for whomever we want in this country, and as Ted Cruz would say, "vote your conscience." That's all I can say. Screw Russia, screw the DNC, screw anyone else who wants to manipulate you. My advice to everyone is that they look at the evidence themselves and make their own informed decisions. The truth will set you free. Don't be anyone's puppet. Be a free thinker who does what you want because you believe strongly in it after a careful look at the evidence.
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