If the next four years go well, we might have to thank Russia

The Russia hacking story has taken over the news and even took over the Golden Globes.

“Of course, there’s always the ballots for tonight’s Golden Globes, which were carefully tabulated by the accounting firm of Ernst and Young and Putin,” Golden Globes host Jimmy Fallon said Sunday night.

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Meanwhile, Meryl Streep urged reporters to save America.

“We need the principled press to hold power to account,” Streep said. “To call them on the carpet for every outrage.”

And on the other side, Reince Priebus said some reporters were pushing the story to undermine America.

“There’s a political angle here … that is clearly politically motivated to discredit the victory of President-elect Trump,” the Chairman of the Republican National Committee said.

But what exactly are we arguing about? There is no evidence that the Russians hacked voting machines or altered the actual vote count in any way — everybody agrees on that. So what we’re arguing about is whether Russia’s hacking and releasing those emails changed voters’ minds.

But we already know the answer, because we’re the voters! We can just check our minds right now and find out.

Russia, of course, should be punished. But Russia couldn’t move your pencil in that voting booth, only you could do that.

All of us were free to note the timing of those email releases and be free to either reject them as manipulation or welcome them as a sign of God’s will.

So I would just say, punish Russia for the hacking, but the reaction to the hacking is on us.

The other thing to consider is if this election ends up being forever remembered as the election Russia hacked, is there’s always a chance things could go really well in the next four years, and then we’d have to thank them.

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