Multiple Layers of Orwellianism
It’s absurd — indeed, utterly Orwellian — to call releasing emails showing the corruption, criminality, AND ELECTION INTERFERENCE of the DNC and Hillary Clinton “election interference.” Wikileaks’ releasing the DNC and Podesta emails is no more “election interference” than the Washington Post releasing the Hollywood Access tape, or the New York Times publishing accounts of the numerous women who said Trump assaulted or sexually harassed them, are election interference. Clinton and Trump are both bad people. Revealing information showing candidates for office who are bad people doing bad things is under no circumstances election interference.
There is no evidence that the Russian government or anyone from Russia was involved in getting the emails to Wikileaks anyway and lots of evidence suggesting that the DNC emails were obtained by someone who physically accessed the DNC’s computers, but in the first place the focus on who got the emails to Wikileaks rather than what they showed about the mainstream of the Democratic Party in general and Hillary Clinton in particular is a deliberate attempt to distract the public from their content. It’s sheer propaganda, and is ITSELF election interference, since the Clinton campaign’s efforts to falsely tie the DNC email release to Russia and to falsely claim that Trump colluded with Russia began during the election campaign (June 14, 2016, to be specific).
To be sure, foreign governments (more Israel and Saudi Arabia than Russia) do interfere in US elections to an extent. But throughout the 21st century, aside from the corrupting influence of campaign funding by corporations and the wealthy that is part and parcel of the US political system, far and away the main source of election interference has been the two major parties themselves. It is present in every election cycle, and has changed the outcome of at least two Presidential elections and countless elections to offices below that level (the recent Georgia governor’s race, for instance).
