General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Evidence Russia helped elect trump is staggering. [View all]Hoyt
(54,770 posts)Everyone knows Russian lies helped trump, but a lot of folks just don't care.
Everyone knows Comey's announcement a week or so before the election helped trump. Everyone knows supposed Democrats that decided to vote directly or indirectly for trump because they were ticked about their candidate losing in the primaries, helped trump.
None of that matters at this point unless someone has a video of trump -- or one of his family or very close advisors -- paying Putin or other Russians for help. Even if votes were changed -- which I doubt -- we still need proof trump was directly involved for enough GOPers to take notice.
We need to be ready to counter whatever happens in 2020.
Kerry lost in 2004, because we couldn't counter the GOPer Swiftboaters and Bin Laden's video threat the Friday before the election.
We should have been prepared to counter Comey's announcement. We should have been ready to counter voter protests over a losing primary candidate. We should have countered Russian lies.
Obviously, we need to beef up voter security for 2020, but blaming all this on Russians -- without direct evidence trump was involved -- isn't going to get us anywhere. Even going after trump for obstruction of Muellers' investigation is going to be tough after Mueller's wishy/washy report. Hope's that trump gets indicted after he leaves office, doesn't really help us either in 2020.