Russia Throws the Election to Trump?

The Democrats continue to seek the cause of their November 8, 2016 defeat.

It reminds me of when we have an attack by a self-avowed Islamist terrorist, screaming Islamist slogans, possessing a computer full of ISIS propaganda AND enjoying the endorsement of ISIS. Such attacks are inevitably followed by anguished PC law enforcement authorities telling us how they are seeking a motive for the attack . . . some times a cigar IS a cigar. So we now see that the Democrats live in a land with no mirrors and must busily search for the culprit of their otherwise inexplicable electoral loss.

We've heard a variety of explanations. Let's start with Hillary did not really lose since the majority of "Americans" voted for her. The first thing to note, of course, is that almost half of Americans did not vote. Second, we should note that the Dems obviously do not live where the US Constitution holds sway since the presidential election is won or lost in the electoral college not by racking up popular vote totals  . . . that same Constitution, by the way, does not mention separation of church and state nor the right to abortion, but does rather explicitly recognize the right of the people to keep and bear arms . . . Moving on from that, we have, of course, millions of fraudulent votes; one day I hope we have a thorough investigation of that and a revamping of our insanely lax voting laws so that we can stop counting votes by foreigners, deceased people, and those who cast multiple ballots. We saw a glimpse of the fraud in the "recount" launched in Michigan when many thousands of votes in Detroit could not be recounted. Ah, yes, Detroit that hub of Republicanism . . .

Then, of course, we have heard from Clinton campaign gurus that they lost because of the FBI, then because Trump played the race card by appealing to white voters. Yes, of course! How blind of me not to see that race was critical in determining whether white voters went for the Democratic 70-year-old white candidate or they went for the Republican 70-year-old white candidate . . . race explains it all.  Misogyny? Yes, that explains why no women voted for Trump. Oh, wait. They did. And on and on . . .

Now they have latched onto an ol' standby, Moscow did it! The party that spent decades telling us to chill it on the anti-Red posturing--the same party, after all, that put Stalinist tool, Henry Wallace into the vice-presidency--and telling us that the USSR posed no threat, that we should seek detente with the Kremlin, that, we should note, the USSR had free medical care and education . . . Well, those folks are now obsessed with Putin. Yes, Putin, who heads up a country some 1.6 million square miles smaller than the old USSR, with a population of less than half the size of the old USSR, and a GDP less than one-tenth that of the USA . . well, he is the threat. In fact, we now have a whole media chorus claiming that Putin threw the US election to Donald Trump, and citing vague unnamed CIA sources as evidence.

I have written before about Putin and made clear I don't like his style of rule--authoritarian gangster--and I don't think we should blindly trust Moscow. That said, I have noted that Putin is a much more effective leader than Obama and has played his much poorer hand masterfully and at a level far above that of Obama-Kerry-Clinton. Putin has re-established Moscow as a major world power thanks, in large part, to the ineptness of Washington, London, Paris, Berlin, Ottawa, etc., in furthering and protecting Western interests. Obama has gutted our military, helped neuter NATO, opposed US energy independence, and prevented the USA from leading the fight against Islamist terror. Obama and company have made the world a much better place for Moscow and Beijing to pursue their interests at the expense of ours.

I have no doubt that Moscow and Beijing have no problem fiddling with our computer systems, stealing information, and trying to create as much havoc as possible. They've done that for decades and we need to be much more energetic in stopping them. But did Putin want Trump to win? Why? Not clear to me. Yes, Trump has made favorable nosies about seeking an alliance with Russia against Islamist terror, but he also has promised--and I believe he will keep that promise--to revitalize our military and industry and promote American energy independence, including, of course, fracking and other fossil fuel development in the USA--a devastating prospect for Russia's oil-based economy. The power balance will swing back to the US in a way it would not had Hillary and her cohorts taken power.

In conclusion, did Putin throw the election? I very much doubt it. I doubt those blue collar workers in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Ohio, etc., were marching to the beat laid down by Moscow. Hillary and her cohorts engaged in unethical and illegal activities which came to light and the people did not like those activities. Hillary was promising those voters a continuation of the Obama economy and of the Obama brand of soul-crushing progressivism. The Russians did not create the shady Clinton Foundation, although they gave generously to it and got access to US uranium in exchange, the Russians did not have Hillary put highly sensitive material on her private server, they did not have the DNC pass debate questions to Hillary, they did not . . . . well, you can fill in the blanks.