Putin's Meddling Will Be Good for U.S. Democracy

As the so-called Trump-Russia story lurches on, one can see it in a few different ways: a witch hunt, the lead-up to Donald Trump's impeachment, a distraction from more important issues, a major national security threat to the U.S. It would be useful, however, to look beyond these partisan perceptions to the story's potential to make America great(er) again.

What we know about the Russian interference in the U.S. presidential election of 2016 exists on three levels of veracity. We know 100 percent that Russian propaganda outlets played on Trump's side against Hillary Clinton, helping spread and amplify reports that were hostile to her, including some that weren't true. We have strong circumstantial evidence that hackers who stole Democratic Party functionaries' emails were Russian or Russian-connected, and grounds to suspect that it was these hackers who provided the emails to Wikileaks (which also undermined Clinton by savoring the gradual release of the dump). We have no direct evidence of collusion or coordination between the Trump campaign and the Russian government in trying to beat Clinton and get Trump elected (though a potentially interesting report on this front emerged last week in the Wall Street Journal).