Let's put aside Russia, the DEMs, the GOP, the Left, the Right, and all that for the moment and let's look at the core: the US has an election system that is vulnerable and open to attack and manipulation from both inside and outside sources. This alone is a very serious matter and really requires very serious attention lest the problems should increase and worsen and whatever integrity the system has and whatever confidence the voting public has in the system is perhaps irrevocably damaged. Leading members of Congress, both House and Senate, both GOP and DEM, who have seen the classified reports and evidence, are calling for expanded hearings into the possibility of election tampering by whoever might have had reason to want to do so and this is not an unreasonable course of action. It is better to have a greater sense of certainty about the integrity how we elect our officials, and the processes used to achieve those ends, than to bicker endlessly and uselessly about petty partisan viewpoints. In the end, it didn't really matter who won the last election; regardless of whichever side won, the end resulting charges of voter fraud, tampering and/or outside influence would have been the same. It seems the only real solution is to do a thorough, comprehensive investigation of this election cycle process(es). Just get down to it, look into it all, find the facts, and, if necessary, formulate and enact suitable remedies. It really is taking more energy and effort to bicker endlessly about the unknown and uncertain than the energy and effort it would require to find the know and certain...
Here's an example of the shoe on the other foot: In the 2016 Presidential Election, Orange County, California had its election results and system challenged. Orange County is the fifth largest voting jurisdiction in the US has been a very steadfast pillar of the GOP in California, particularly the Far Right wing of the party. It is not too much to say Orange is the cornerstone of the CA-GOP. After the votes were tallied' Clinton won with 51.6% percent of the vote versus 42.9% for Trump. It was a very big surprise for a DEM candidate to have won in Orange so decisively, by a margin of 9%, but the real astonishing factor was this was the first time a DEM Presidential candidate had won in Orange since 1936, the first time in 80 years. After the results were posted, the CA-GOP went into a frenzy, leveling charges of voting irregularities, saying the DEMs had won due to unqualified DEM voters on the voter rolls and they insisted on an investigation. However, there was one major flaw to their charges: before the election, the voter rolls had been scrubbed to remove dead voters still listed as well as voters who had moved out of the jurisdiction; the County Registrar of Voters had gone so far as to purchase data from outside databases such as credit reporting services in order to more completely assure the accuracy of the scrub. The Registrar went to these extraordinary means mainly at the behest and bellicose insistence of (wait for it): the CA-GOP. In fact, the Registrar, Neal Kelly, is so highly held in esteem by his peers, he has won national honors for his efforts to ensure clean accurate elections in his county...
What we need is a definitive investigation that produces definitive answers, leading to definitive solutions. If some partisan political feelings are hurt or if some partisan political images are tarnished, then, so be it. The integrity of the election process election is too important to worry about the political impression of "de-legitimizing" some candidate or party. The US voting public deserves answers and solutions, not petty partisanship bickering going nowhere and solving nothing. Do it now, do it right, and do it fast...
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