see, that is the muddying of the water that pisses me off.
has the US meddled in foreign affairs of other countries and tried to sway elections toward moderates and against extremists? almost assuredly, and the CIA gets an awful lot of flack for that from americans. most americans would tell you they would strongly disagree with the US government meddling in a foreign election.
in the united states, the belief is supposed to be that the people who determine the election are american citizens, not foreign governments. did putin prefer trump and not clinton? absolutely. he could have gone on tv and said he hated clinton and was really hoping trump would win. its a completely different story when a foreign government hacks the opposition party, then uses the stolen information as a weapon against the candidate. when the foreign actor coordinates the release of the information and logistical issues to help one party win, that crosses the line.
do you remember this?
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/14/us/the-2000-campaign-the-debate-gore-aide-receives-then-lets-go-of-hot-potato.html
gore's camp called the FBI because they received info they knew they should not have. thats what an honest actor does. getting a foreign government to hack your enemy and then weaponize the stolen information is abhorrent. its abhorrent in this case and its abhorrent when/if the US does it as well.
and that speaks to the fact that if we continue to pretend like it doesnt matter, they will do it again in 2018 and 2020. in that case, whats the point of having elections? you might as well just make trump king and let him serve as long as he wants, then turn things over to his incompetent idiot sons or his daughters.
