Is foreign influence shaping our presidential election? Donald Trump has caused a furor by seeming to ask Russia to hack into Hillary Clinton’s emails.
Per the Washington Post foreign influence is not something that is new, “Great-power interference in American politics goes back to the infancy of the republic, when fears of French covert operations designed to drag the United States into a war with Britain led President John Adams to sign the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798. As historian Timothy Naftali notes, before Pearl Harbor, Britain tried to turn U.S. public opinion against isolationists such as Charles Lindbergh and the original America First movement.
Perhaps the most sustained attempt by a foreign power to exert influence in American domestic politics took place during the Cold War. As Christopher Andrew recounts in “The Sword and the Shield,” “influence operations” — which spread disinformation — were staples of Soviet intelligence activities. Notable successes included Soviet dissemination of conspiracy theories about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and smears about the private lives of officials such as J. Edgar Hoover.
The KGB also sought to inflame U.S. racial tensions in the late 1960s and early 1970s. A 1971 operation fabricated racist pamphlets, attributed them to the Jewish Defense League and mailed them to militant African American organizations. After the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., the KGB reprised its conspiracy-theory peddling to spread rumors that the government had connived in his death. Russian officials hoped that these efforts would diminish Americans’ trust in their government and sow confusion.”
So it seems that nothing is new about foreign governments interfering in our politics nor our doing the same. What is different this time is Trump asking for another government to release Hillary’s secret emails. But you must know that Wikileaks is more than likely the group responsible for the hacking of Hillary’s email server and not the Russians. While it is in Putin’s favor to cause problems for Hillary, because she would be more than likely to able to fight back than Trump due to her foreign political experience.
The answer is that foreign governments are interfering right now, trying to influence our politics and trying at the same time to curry political favor with their own people. Political scientist Dov Levin says “Research suggests that we also shouldn’t exaggerate the influence of interventions. Great powers can’t simply hand an election to their favored candidate. At best, they can swing support from a candidate they oppose to the most popular candidate they find acceptable.”
I have to agree with the Mr. Levin and also say that while foreign governments might try to influence our elections, we the American voting public can fight back against their interference by learning the facts and making sure that we are not listening to rumors that have no basis in facts.
That is my opinion- Jumpin Jersey Mike
