If you were one of the roughly 72 million people who tuned in to watch the third and final presidential debate last week, congratulations! You survived what felt like an apocalypse. With about two weeks to go before Election Day 2016, both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are entering the final stretch of this election cycle by campaigning vigorously in many swing states. Although, I think by this point many people have already made up their mind regarding who they intend to vote for.
Many disgusting, vile, false and disturbing things have been said since the campaign season started last year, particularly by the Republican nominee, Donald J. Trump. But what bothers me most isn’t that there are roughly 3,500 lawsuits by and pending against him and his companies for various reasons. It’s not that he may not accept the outcome of the election if he loses, which is disturbing. It’s not even the audio recording where he brags about sexual assault and that he can get away with anything because he’s famous and rich. It’s not even the Trump University scandal.
What bothers me most about this election is Russia.
Throughout this campaign, Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin, despite officially not favoring any particular candidate over the other, have made it clear who they want to see win the race for the White House. The Putin and Trump bromance is very disturbing for many reasons. The first, I think, is because Trump refuses to admit that Russia is behind the cyberattack on the Democratic National Committee and giving that damaging information to Wikileaks.
There is overwhelming evidence and clear motivation for Russia to try and influence our election. Why wouldn’t Putin want a man in the White House who has talked about withdrawing from or scaling back our involvement in NATO because many member countries don’t pay their dues? Russia has always been angered that NATO has moved closer and closer to its borders. Why wouldn’t Putin want a man in the White House who has said he would consider recognizing the illegally annexed Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea?
Vladimir Putin’s ultimate end game remains a bit sketchy, but it’s not hard to see that Putin is trying to create doubt and sow distrust in our political system. He seems to have found an unwitting participant in Donald Trump.
It is truly a major source of concern, even within the Republican party. Mitt Romney famously said during a presidential debate in 2012 that Russia was our “number one geopolitical foe.” His comments at the time were brushed aside by many, including President Barack Obama, who now recognizes the threat we face from Russia.
Let’s flashback 20 years, to the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union. One of the main reasons that the Soviet political system failed was because of a lack of trust in the system.
Granted, there were other major factors that led to its collapse, but a lack of trust certainly played an important role. Russia is trying to regain what it believes is its rightful place in the world, i.e. Syria and Ukraine. A weak America would be very favorable to what Putin is trying to do.
I’m not trying to say that the content in the leaked emails from Hillary Clinton’s campaign should be ignored. In fact, they certainly are a cause for concern. Wikileaks and Russia are clearly working together to influence the outcome of this election and sow distrust in our political system.
Both Julian Assange, who runs Wikileaks, and Putin have made it clear that they don’t like Clinton. In fact, Putin genuinely believes that as secretary of state, Clinton interfered in Russia’s 2011 parliamentary elections by fomenting the biggest protests against Putin’s rule since he took office in 2000. In his mind, it’s fair game to interfere in our elections.
When all 17 intelligence agencies — including Director of National Intelligence James Clapper — all come to the conclusion that Russia is behind the massive cyberattack on the DNC and several state election systems, it’s safe to conclude that they were indeed responsible for it. It’s alarming when the Republican nominee says that Putin is a better leader than President Obama.
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Despite all of her flaws and misgivings, Hillary Clinton said it best during the final debate by calling Trump a “puppet” of the Russian government. Essentially, by denying the overwhelming evidence that they orchestrated the cyberattacks on the DNC, and by praising Putin, that’s exactly what he is.
It will certainly be interesting in the coming days and weeks to see what else Russia will do to interfere in and influence our election.
By denying that he’s losing in the polls and saying that he may not accept the outcome of the election, Donald Trump is not only playing into Vladimir Putin’s narrative and end game, he’s threatening a core foundation of our democracy — the peaceful transition of power. I’m genuinely concerned about what he’ll do and say when he loses.
Jon Lofquist is a guest columnist at the Daily Lobo. He can be reached at news@dailylobo.com.
