Saturday, January 7, 2017

No, Russia Didn’t Elect Donald Trump — the Voters Did

Let’s always remember, first of all, that the world is full of hypocrites. Things are far less confusing when you come to understand and accept that reality. A great many people do not possess actual convictions nor do they judge events by one set standard. They cobble together a haphazard collection of principles on a case-by-case basis, according to what is convenient at the time. They will pretend to deeply believe in a certain thing one moment, and the next they will abandon it and mock those who still believe the very thing they pretended to believe 18 seconds ago. This is how many people — perhaps most people — operate.

So, when it comes to the unsubstantiated report from the CIA that Russia meddled in our election in order to get Trump elected, you’ll find that many people who were quite unconcerned about Russia and skeptical of the intelligence community up until now have suddenly decided that the CIA is always right and Russia is the gravest global threat we face. On the flip side, you’ll find that many people who were anti-Russia hardliners and basically trustful of the intelligence community up until now have suddenly decided that Russia is harmless, or even an ally, and the CIA is comprised of a bunch of incompetent partisan hacks. Mitt Romney was mocked by liberals and supported by conservatives when he warned about Russia during the 2012 campaign. Today, that idea has gained favor with the very group that mocked it, and fallen out of favor with the very group that supported it.

And it goes without saying that many of the liberals who think this Russia story is a big deal now, would not think it such a big deal if Hillary were the one they allegedly conspired to get elected. And many of the conservatives who think this Russia story is not a big deal these days, would certainly think it an enormous deal if Hillary were the one a foreign state supposedly conspired to get elected. And on and on. Everyone has switched sides on everything. It’s all a game to us, it seems.

For my part, although I think it’s pretty clear that Russia did hack the DNC, I am not remotely convinced and I do not think it’s been at all confirmed that they did it specifically to elect Trump. Just today another report surfaced showing that the FBI does not necessarily agree with the CIA’s assessment. So, we don’t know for certain why Russia did it. We don’t even know for certain that they did it at all. At least I don’t know, and neither do you.

But there are a few things I do know, or think I know, about this whole situation. Here is a list of those things, in no particular order:

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The post No, Russia Didn’t Elect Donald Trump — the Voters Did appeared first on The Matt Walsh Blog.

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