How did Putin do it? U.S. Intelligence agencies covered the details of Russia's 2016 election intervention in a series of reports over the last several years. They documented Project Lakhta, the code name of the operation ordered by President Putin and his Russian allies, which worked through some dozen entities, employed hundreds of people and had a global budget of about $35 million, funded by a company named Concord, run by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a Russian billionaire friendly with Putin.
Although there was no firm evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, the interference was well documented. The Internet Research Agency, basically a troll farm based in Russia, produced millions of anti-Clinton, pro-Trump social media posts, planned pro-Trump political events, hacked into the internet accounts of important Democratic campaign committees and leaders, and leaked stolen campaign information to the public, with the help of DC Leaks, Guccifer 2.0, and Wikileaks.
By helping Donald Trump, the Russian president got what he wanted. Besides having an ally in the White House, Putin helped poison the political atmosphere in the United States, and could enjoy the splitting of our country into partisan groups unwilling and incapable of working with each other.
Hillary Clinton had no magical healing power, but as president she likely would have tried to bridge the political divisions and bring people together. But Trump, using the power and influence of the office, did his best to divide the country and encourage hate and conflict, the kind this country hasn't seen since the Civil War.
It is no secret that if the Republican Party were to gain power again, our democracy will be in grave danger. Republicans have shown all they care about is winning and gaining power, and have made a concerted attempt to suppress votes from people of color, older people, poor people, students, the disabled and other groups that tend to vote for Democrats. More than 30 voter suppression bills have passed and over 400 bills in 49 states introduced since the 2020 election, and the gerrymandering has been unprecedented, all of it intended to make it harder for certain Americans to vote.
Even worse, Republicans, led by Trump, have denied the 2020 election results and insist, without even the slightest of evidence, that the Democrats stole the election from Donald Trump. And if that isn't enough, some states are passing laws to replace neutral and objective election officials with partisan Republican-leaning officials. If Republicans don't like the election results in their state, elected officials can step in and appoint new electors more favorable to their views. In other words, election results can be overturned, meaning each American's vote will be arguably of little value.
This is exactly what Vladimir Putin wanted: politicians who go easy on Russia, and an America paralyzed by political and cultural division, with diminished power and influence globally.
Putin won. We lost. It is imperative that we do everything we can to turn that around. We face a monumental and uncertain challenge, but our future depends on it.
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