The really bad news, is that country to country interference with elections and governments has been going on for decades. In addition the US does it to countries who are both adversaries and allies of the US.
I am not saying whether, this is good or bad, but this is what happens. However, I think it is bad but I am willing to accept there may be exceptions.
Intelligence agencies from the US, Russia, China, Israel, etc. are funded with many billions of dollars to find out what is not public and to interfere with other governments. The US budget for this in 2016 is estimated to be $53 billion — but the government does not disclose an official number see — www.dni.gov/...
As to the matter of interfereing with elections or who forms a government, I am not talking about the 1950s in Iran and the US and UK, or the USSR in Cuba. I am talking mainly about the past 5 years.
Remember this major story from 2013 about a long time US ally.
Angela Merkel's phone 'hacked by American spies': German Chancellor confronts Barack Obama over claims
The Obama administration was continuing the practice of hacking the German Chancellor and his/her reports for decades. see www.mirror.co.uk/…
the US also interferes with elections in other countries, including Israel, another ally.
NGO used US tax dollars in anti-Netanyahu election campaign, Senate finds
This was during Pres Obama’s administration in 2015 m.jpost.com/… Then again many of us will remember Netanyahu publically campaigning against Pres Obama policies — so some payback is not surprising.
US Interference in Russian Elections
in the case of Russia’s elections in 2011 see www.washingtonpost.com… maybe Putin is looking for payback. I have no means of knowing if Putin is right or wrong in his accusations.
Putin accuses Clinton, U.S. of fomenting election protests
MOSCOW — Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Thursday accused the United States of supporting street protests against last Sunday’s elections and blasted Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton for suggesting that the voting was rigged.
Under Pres Bill Clinton the US helped Russia’s Yeltsin get re-elected in 1996. It is important to note that Putin was in a competing political party when this occurred. see en.m.wikipedia.org/...
With low support, Yeltsin resorted to some means to realize the turnaround: money, control of the mass media, use of "black arts" to disrupt the Communists' campaign and manipulation of the vote count.[2] Russia's electoral law limited campaign spending to $3 million for each candidate. The Communist Party did not have the financial resources to overspend the limit. However, estimates of the funds spent by the Yeltsin campaign range from $700 million to $2 billion. A huge amount of money was raised by oligarchs and other business interests. An even larger sum was made available indirectly by the West. Urged by the United States, the International Monetary Fund granted a $10.2 billion loan to Russia in February and enabled the government to spend huge sums paying long-owed back wages and pensions to millions of Russians, with some overdue checks arriving shortly before the June election.[2]
Given how Pres Bill Clinton in 1996 intefered with a Russian election, against the party Putin was with, and how Putin believes the US gov and Sec of State Hillary Clinton interfered with the Russian election in 2011 against Putin, what do you think Putin, a former KGB guy would do if Hillary Clinton ran for president in 2016? I think he would interfere. I would be very very surprised if he did not. He would be driven by deep anti-Clinton views regardless of who ran against her.
What to do
We should have our election policies operate on the assumption that other countries and other interests will always try to strongly impact our elections. In addition,we should assume they will frequently be successful regardless of laws that we may pass. We need a robust system, while still fully living up to the First Amendment and the right of all citizens to vote without barriers.
