Almost everybody and everything presently in a position of power in the United States – from leading politicians on both sides of Congress, including Speaker of the House and top Republican Paul Ryan, to federal departments, intelligence agencies, and courts of law – agrees that November’s presidential election was corrupt.
That’s why – following calls from Republican senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham – President Barack Obama and the State Department have just expelled 35 Russian diplomats from the country, as a form of punishment for alleged hacking which aimed to influence the result. In addition to the expulsions, sanctions have been imposed against nine entities including two Russian intelligence agencies, the FSB and GRU.
The CIA had already professed its ‘high confidence’ in the idea that Russian hackers had attempted to sway the election in favour of eventual winner Donald Trump. Lindsey Graham suggested that 99 out of 100 sitting senators ‘believe the Russians did this’. And in response to the expulsions and sanctions announced by Obama, Paul Ryan only stressed that they were ‘overdue’. On the same day, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security released a report detailing Russian efforts to ‘compromise and exploit networks and endpoints associated with the US election’.
With such a consensus, it is remarkable that nobody is enunciating the only logical conclusion, which is that the election is invalid and must be redone. Only Trump and his closest allies are attempting to evade the seriousness of the allegations, with Trump praising Vladimir Putin for refraining from retaliation while suggesting ‘It’s time for our country to move on’.
Is the United States, the bastion of democracy, simply happy to accept that its elections can no longer be regarded as free or fair? Will it agree that from now on it has no right to condemn foreign elections, because the political process is a proven farce back home? Does the country lack the means or the inclination to try a second time after gross failure? And if so, then how come?
It hardly matters that the evidence gathered so far stops short of suggesting Russian tampering with vote tallies. The overwhelming indication that Russian hackers conspired to leak material damaging to Democrat contender Hillary Clinton means that the outcome was influenced illicitly, and by foreign hands. One more time at the close of 2016, the brazen perversion of democracy is becoming the norm.
