How Russia Used the Bernie Bots to Gift the Presidency to Donald Trump

So I found myself trying to answer the question the right wing keeps throwing up...

How did Russia hacking the DNC cost Hillary the election? How could they have possibly affected the election?

Setting aside the horrible precedent of an international power, a long time ideological enemy of our nation and national interests, perpetrating an insidious attack on the new war front of the 21st century, online hacking. Set aside the terrible implications that this first nationally visible attack on everything we know and hold dear...our entire lives...from our power to our nuclear reactors to our entire banking system. Set all that aside for a moment and just answer that one question. How did the Russian hack and leak give Trump the election?

First you have to stop and look at the states that gave Trump the election and by how little he won those states. Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. Those states were states that went overwhelmingly to Sanders in the primaries. Second, if you look at what was hacked and leaked there was nothing truly shocking on a national level. There was nothing illegal. Unethical maybe, but not illegal. Let's face it...ethics means nothing to Trump or his supporters so let's not pretend that this was about ethics.

Finally, what the Russians showed, as opposed even to the terrorists of 9/11, is that they understand how Americans think. They truly understood how to manipulate our weaknesses against us. The Russians understood that if you could turn the Bernie or Bust people solid against Hillary then you could win the states that you needed to win.

Was the DNC wrong? Yes. They were wrong. But you are fooling yourself if you think that this does not happen every single election at every level. What the Russians understood is that they could use the Bernie or Bust radicals against the Democrats and all they had to do was hack and leak information that set them against the Democratic Candidate.

So yes, without question, the Russians understood what they needed to do to manipulate our election. And they did it to perfection. All they needed was less than a percentage point of a swing in the key states that were the biggest Bernie Supporters...and they got exactly that one percentage point or less.

And that is what is the scariest part of all of this...they get us. They understand us and how to manipulate us.

Here is the biggest difference between this silent and insidious attack the Russians perpetrated against us and the big explosion and blast of 9/11. The terrorists on 9/11 demonstrated an inability to understand us. They, in their fanatical ignorance, thought that the money of Wall Street is the core of American strength. The plane that would have done the most damage to us was the one they planned hitting us last...the one that went down in a field in Pennsylvania. The one that was supposed to hit our Capitol and take out our democratic process. That would have crippled us so much more than the planes that hit the Trade Towers and the Pentagon. But they were blinded by their fanaticism, thankfully, and they failed to understand us because of their preconceived ideas.

Russia, however, in one silent blow demonstrated a much deeper understanding of America and Americans. Why wouldn't they understand us? The Cold War prepared them for this. They know us. They understand us. And they won the first salvo...

And the scary part is the right wing conservative side of our nation either cheers them on in their victory or chooses to stoically stand aside and pretend it never happened.