ABSTRACT
Chapter 2 argues that a critical weakness of RussiaGate discourse is its exceptionally narrow understanding of “election meddling.” There are many sources of non-transparent interference in elections. Examining only Russia without reference to other sources is deceptive. Any reasonable list of major problems challenging the integrity of the US electoral system would not prioritize Russia. Greater priority, for example, would be given to voting machines, their vulnerability to hackers, deficiencies of auditing in the case of machines without paper trails, and issues of voter suppression when insufficient numbers of machines are provided or machines are old, poorly serviced, or slow. Amidst numerous other considerations are the many ways in which the Republican Party, in particular, has engaged in voter suppression and the play of “dark money,” whether domestic or international, that has been exacerbated by Citizens United legislation. The nature of alleged Russian meddling is itself farcical, not least because of claims that Russia sowed “discord” in a country that is manifestly riven with long-standing social fault lines and the content of much of its supposed interference was apolitical and/over juvenile.
