By Tim Baldwin
Some may believe Russia influenced Donald Trump’s win with its hacking and leaking information about Hillary Clinton. If it’s true, it is disturbing that a foreign nation would attempt to affect our elections, but there is another important question. Is the leaked information true?
In common law and statutory law, there is a defense to lawsuits alleging slander and libel; that is, truth. Assuming Russia took responsibility for leaking the hacked information, it may assert the “defense” of truth. Russia may assert in its defense, it tried to awaken Americans to the deep-seated corruption reaching the core of our politics. Russian may rebut, instead of blaming us for revealing truth, Americans should put the microscope on America’s most powerful politicians.
In fact, those trying to figure out why Trump won, other than the simple fact that Americans are mad, should consider self-inspection. Trump tapped into the root of America. Trump said things about exposing corruption in D.C. that no executive politician has said in decades. Americans are tired of being ignored, shunned and treated like they don’t exist. They are tired of paying too much into a system that doesn’t return the investment. They’re tired of being lied to. They want someone to identify with their plight.
Assuming Russia leaked information about Clinton, Americans should be willing to look into the truth of the leaks. It may help improve our future elections and system.
By Joe Carbonari
Is Donald Trump a Trojan Horse? Did Putin use social media to plant false stories and promote Donald Trump? Does Trump really believe he can take Putin on, and us with him, in a game of international monopoly? By the way, there are new rules. It is now officially OK to lie, cheat and steal. After all, we are doing it for a good cause, ourselves – to make America great again. Putin, of course, is already on the path of making Russia great again … in Crimea, Syria, and Ukraine for instance, and now, in our electoral system.
Did he tip the election to Trump? We have no measure of the voter minds that were affected, but we do know that many false stories were widely taken as true. Enough to give Trump the victory? Likely unknowable, but we do know that our system is vulnerable and that we’d better start thinking about it.
Too many of those eligible to vote either don’t, or cast largely under-informed, or misinformed votes. Trying to keep the economy humming and the people safe, and happy, is a difficult task. If we allow ourselves, our voters, to be lied to and mentally manipulated, the likelihood is that we will be weakened both morally and materially. If the people lose faith in the system, it will fail. That is what the Putin meddling is all about, and it will not stop on its own accord. We need a national discussion on truthfulness, fair play, and the responsibilities of citizenship.