The 2016 election was perhaps one of the most toxic elections in decades, sprouting scandal after scandal. One of the most consequential was the Russian cyber interference in our election. It was a basic attack on the very foundation of American democracy. To muddy the waters, toss out tradition, and for Russia, a chance to hit the United States where it truly hurts. Russia for the first time since the sixties has the chance to fundamentally attack the United States, with practically no backlash. This isn’t a physical conventional attack, it even is a back and forth game of spies and secrets. It was calculating cyber attack, disguised as mass hysteria of trolls, bots and hackers.

The first argument to all of this is simply that it’s a liberal backed conspiracy with no evidence, no context, and no motive. It’s a shame that most intelligence collecting agencies disagree. The FBI, CIA and Homeland Security are essentially in agreement over the fact that Russia did organize the mass of bots, trolls, and hackers spreading propaganda, false information, and the breach in both the DNC and RNC database. I’m a firm believer that conspiracies then to forget one simple thing, people are not supervillains. No gigantic conspiracy can survived without something being leaked or sent into the public, by accident or motive. That’s why I mostly believe that Donald Trump, the candidate, had no direct link to Russia. Indirect? Possibly, but I personally believe its not likely. From a Russian viewpoint however, Trump is a godsend, and Clinton is a threat. So obviously the only information taken and leaked from the DNC/RNC were from the Democratic database,

2016 election was perhaps the most divided this nation has been in years, even decades. Controversial opinions flyed, saying your political alignment was certainly going to start an argument. People fought, they argued, the election itself was simply, toxic. The centre of that toxicity, was the Russian interference in it.

Oddly enough, even if there are multiple government agencies, including the FBI, CIA and other National Defense agencies saying that the Russians hacked the DNC and RNC, it’s still a controversial view to have. Being downgraded to simply being a ‘conspiracy’ and disregarded as fact. It is fact, as much as that may hurt to say. The fact that this happened is far more dangerous than it was presented. A foreign country attempting to sway an election. Now, the most common argument against Russian interference in the election is that saying the Russians wanted to get Donald J. Trump elected would undermine his victory. Which, is fair, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t attempt to stop this from happening ever again.

Russia, has very clear and distinct geopolitical interests. They want a route into warm seas, control of the Arctic, natural borders against NATO and other threats to their population centres. The best way to do that is to get the US either off their backs, or on their side. The difference is now technology finally gives them a fighting chance on mudding the waters of our election. Putting it in doubt by electing campaign servers, spreading false information on major social medias, and attempting to hack voting machines. They attempted to hack voting machines, and they failed horribly, yet the fact they tried is extremely concerning. The impact of this on other elections can be dangerous. Russia has tried to do this with other countries as well, such as the UK, France, and other European countries.

The impact is clear, they can do it again, and most likely will, there has been no practical retaliation, no downgrade in diplomacy, Ukraine hasn’t even been mentioned, even if there’s an ongoing Russian backed Civil War. Russia hasn’t been pushed back at all, they’ve supplied oil, and continue to supply oil to North Korea, and continue to fly dangerously close to US jets near Alaska. Russia wants to be the big dog, and seeing they can influence the election of the US, the supposed defender of democracy, they now think they’re the top dog, and maybe they’re right.

Of course, there’s a second part of this. Many people simply think of the Russian ‘hacking’ as a crazed conspiracy to explain the defeat of Hillary Clinton. Sure Clinton did make a rather big deal that she lost because of the Russians, which honestly is half true. The best they did was spread fake news to sway opinions and dangerously hack into democratic systems like the RNC and the DNC. Clinton has a dozen reasons why she lost. But I’ll say it again, tossing aside something seen as fact by multiple National Defense agencies is frankly idiotic. Being blinded by political thought, it’s fact that the Russians influenced our election. It’s up to the people of the United States to do something about it. Lest it become the norm.