If no-one takes the fall for this, the GOP/Trump administration will continue to be pro-Russia. Because, if no-one takes the fall, they'll continue to assert it's liberal lies.
I'm not saying nobody takes the fall, if this is verified, say Trump's removed but Pence stays, sure, he may seem tainted but I could see a situation where everyone left overcompensates against Russia in an effort to save face.
I may not like the Republican party but I'm also not convinced that if Trump wasn't removed, and this was all confirmed, that they'd all fall in line. I'd like to believe a good many of them would work to delegitimize the election.
Honestly speaking, the only way I see the Republicans not taking damage is if the electorate flat out doesn't care. Which is, sadly, a real possibility. There's a lot of right wingers who think Putin's bad ass or at the least would prefer a Russian puppet to a Liberal, as insane as this shit is. So I'm not saying your fear has no merit whatsoever but I have to believe that if this is true, that whether Trump's removed, the whole Republican ticket's removed or no-one's removed that they're done this election regardless, at least so far as hurting NATO or appeasing Russia. Because the alternative to that is that the populace doesn't give a fuck and if that truly is the case then it doesn't matter what we do, Obama could right this wrong and it'd just happen again because the populace just didn't give a shit. And if the population just doesn't give a shit there's no need to even be covert about it next time.
If Russia influenced the election result, then that literally makes a laughing stock of US democracy. At what point in the future does a foreign power do something worse than this? At what point in the future will influence from a foreign power be too much influence?
There is straight up no way to eliminate foreign influence. I don't know how much of this story will end up as true or not but I also don't think we've been clear of foreign influence for a long time. How much is too much? I'd say all of it, but in this connected world I'd be hardpressed to find a candidate for President, by nature of the money needed to run and the visibility, that is not influenced, directly or indirectly, by foreign powers. This doesn't just have to be the Kremlin mind you, it could be people like HSBC or BP.
The reason I say that if this happened to another country the UN/West would be up-in-arms is because once a foreign power crosses the line from subtle influence to overt propaganda, the future of that country's democracy can be shown to be clearly influenced, and it'll continue. You can argue that the US/CIA did a lot of this kind-of-thing in the past, sure - Chile would be a good example, I think - but there's a difference between this and that, in terms of raw-power of the countries involved, and the potential for splitting related organisations (UN/UNSC/NATO). Also, the US in the 60s/70s merely wanted to prevent the spread of Communism. Russia in the here-and-now is actively seeking to destabilise entire regions for the purposes of nationalism, empire-building and natural resource theft.
What is the difference between influence and propaganda? Right now Russia is funding parties in Western Europe ahead of many of their elections and Europe's struggling with what to do over it right now and the UN is doing jack shit. Granted, some of the allegations in this report go beyond simple funding, sure, but how much of a difference is there really? Perhaps I'm too simple a person. And I don't really want to touch whether our stopping the advance of Communism is somehow morally superior to Russia's goals, or whether I think that was the case on our end at all.
Further, I think there's a difference between Average Joe Bloggs accepting this, and the actual US - as a nation-state - accepting this. SCOTUS/Senate/Congress/DoJ and every other federal power has to - to one degree or another - ensure the safety and well being of the country and its citizenry. Again, if they fail to do this, then it can show that the largest Western power can be influenced with no repercussions, and that can only be bad for the future.
Well, first off, I don't believe that those institutions actually feel they have the responsibility of ensuring the safety and well being of the citizenry otherwise we wouldn't be looking at repealing Obamacare, privatizing Social Security, gutting Medicare, ignoring climate change science or gutting education. But snipes at the government aside, without knowing exactly what you feel should be done I'm not sure I can agree or not here. Frankly I think Trump should go. But like I said above, if somehow Congress doesn't remove him I kinda want to see what the people do. If there's not a legit law that they can remove Trump with, and this is true, then I want to see if the Republicans step up as well.
And again I say that because if the people don't do something then I'm not sure what recourse we have if we wish to remain a democracy. Do we ban Russia Today? Do we outright ban people and companies doing business with foreign entities? Do we ban pro-media of any country? We should probably make some new laws for sure though regarding running for the Presidency.
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