HACKERS UNITED

Do you realize that our next American president is essentially being chosen by hackers?  Of all the bizarre things happening during the election, this strikes me as the most troubling.   In the past, we didn’t know what happened behind closed doors.  The candidates told us what they wanted us to hear.  For example, Hillary Clinton chose not to release her speeches to various groups.  Those were private meetings and she wasn’t required to do it.  Now we have leaked transcripts.  Her emails, and the DNC’s, were also hacked and distributed. 

Think about that.  Everything you’ve ever posted online could be made public.  I definitely can’t remember every email I’ve written, but I’ll bet someone, somewhere would be highly offended by something I said – especially if taken out of context, or altered.  And yet we implicitly trust these hackers, who are essentially criminals with a clear political agenda, to leak us the truth.

On the other hand, we know nothing of Donald Trump’s emails, or those of the RNC.  We’ve seen not a single one.  Wonder what we would discover if those were hacked?  It’s a reasonable assumption that a WWIII of bombshells would explode.  But because apparently Russians want to control our election, and hackers such as Wikileaks continue to oblige them, only the Clinton campaign suffers.  

Trump still won’t release his tax returns, which by all accounts would provide very damaging information against him.  But we at least got three pages, which strongly indicate what we all suspected - he’s a terrible business man, and a tax dodger.  And then there is the leaked audio from that fateful bus ride to meet a talk show host, which may cost him the election.   Our dark sides yearn to learn more about his nefarious character – but where does it end?   Is this the brave new world of politics, or a smarmy reality show?   

If we knew none of these things - the race would be very different.  We can’t ignore these illegal hacks and leaks, and pretend they don’t exist.   It’s impossible to remain in the present tense – listening to what the candidates pledge to do in terms of policies and platforms, regardless of what they did or wrote years ago, or what they blurted out in what they thought was a private moment.  If we did, we still might reject Donald Trump, but for better reasons.