Why Shouldn’t Foreign Regimes Try to Influence U.S. Elections?

by
Jacob G. Hornberger
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Reminder: Our online Zoom conference on open borders continues this Monday evening, November 4, with Don Boudreaux,  former president of The Foundation for Economic Education and current professor economics at George Mason University.  7 p.m.-8 p.m. Eastern Time.  Register here.

Reminder: I’ll be speaking at the JFK Lancer conference and also at the CAPA conference, which are being held on November 22-24 in Dallas. There is also an excellent third JFK conference on the same weekend sponsored by the JFK Historical Group. All three of them are fantastic JFK-assassination-related conferences. I highly recommend registering for all three and then picking and choosing which sessions you would like to attend at all three conferences. The registration prices are moderate and it’s a great way to support three great conferences. I will have some of my JFK books at my presentations to autograph and sell at a discounted price. I hope to see you all there!

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Just like clockwork, U.S. officials are extremely concerned over foreign regimes that are supposedly trying to influence the 2024 U.S. presidential election. “Stay out of our political system,” U.S. officials exclaim, even while they embroil themselves in the political systems of practically ever country in the world.

But my question is a simple one: Why shouldn’t foreign regimes try to influence U.S. presidential elections? After all, some of them arguably have a bigger stake in the outcome of the presidential race than individual Americans.

Consider Russia, for example. That country has lost tens of thousands of Russian soldiers in its war with Ukraine. But it was the U.S. government, operating through its old Cold War dinosaur NATO, that successfully provoked Russia into invading Ukraine. If Ukraine were to abandon its U.S.-supported dream of joining NATO, Russia would no longer have reason to continue waging its war against Ukraine.

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So, given that Russia has lost so many soldiers in that war, all of whom undoubtedly left grieving family members, relatives, and friends back home, why wouldn’t Russian officials want to see Donald Trump elected president, given that Trump would probably be more likely to forswear any intention of making Ukraine a NATO member?

On the other hand, Kamala Harris is likely to follow the direction that her boss, President Biden, has pursued. Like Biden, she would continue deferring to the U.S. national-security establishment by insisting that Ukraine become a member of NATO.

Given that the U.S. government has caused so much death and suffering among Russians, the Russian regime obviously has a huge stake in the outcome of the U.S. presidential race. Given such, why is it so wrong for Russia to campaign for the U.S. presidential candidate who is less likely to continue wreaking death and destruction on Russia?

Consider China. There is no doubt that Trump will unleash another vicious and destructive trade war against China, one that involves ever-increasing tariffs, sanctions, and import quotas. In the process, he will be inflicting enormous economic harm on the Chinese people (and the American people), as he did the last time he was president.

While Harris herself isn’t a libertarian free-trade paragon by any means, she clearly doesn’t have the obsessive protectionist mindset that Trump has.

Given such, doesn’t it make sense that many Chinese officials would not want another four years of Trump. Unlike the Trump people, the Chinese understand that there are benefits that come from mutual trade. I’d venture to say that most Chinese are not interested in another trade war and would instead prefer a mutual ratcheting down of tariffs and trade restrictions.

Therefore, given the huge stake that China has in the outcome of the U.S. presidential race, what’s wrong with the Chinese trying to help Harris get elected instead of Trump?

Consider Iran. I can’t imagine that Iran is tempted to try to influence the U.S. presidential race. Why not? After all, the U.S. government has maintained a deadly and destructive system of economic sanctions against the Iranian people for years. Given such, doesn’t Iran have a big stake in the U.S. presidential race?

Not really, because both Trump and Harris are ardent interventionists when it comes to Iran. They are on the same statist, interventionist page. It doesn’t matter which of them is elected president insofar as Iran is concerned. Both of them insist on continuing to target the Iranian people with death and economic impoverishment with their brutal interventionist system of sanctions. What’s the point of trying to get one of them elected when they both have the same statist mindset toward the Iranian people?

Thus, we should constantly bear in mind that the only reason Russia and China have an interest in influencing the U.S. presidential election is because of U.S. interventionism against Russia and China. If the U.S. government wasn’t embroiled in provoking real wars or initiating trade wars, Russia and China wouldn’t have any reason to get involved in the U.S. presidential race.

So, is the answer to continue whining and weeping every four years over possible foreign involvement in U.S. presidential elections? No, the answer is for the American people to bring a permanent end to U.S. officials embroiling themselves in the political systems of other countries. In that way, U.S. officials will no longer have to engage in a gnashing of teeth every four years over the possibility of foreign involvement in U.S. presidential elections.

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Reminder: Our online Zoom conference on open borders continues this Monday evening, November 4, with Don Boudreaux,  former president of The Foundation for Economic Education and current professor economics at George Mason University.  7 p.m.-8 p.m. Eastern Time.  Register here.

Reminder: I’ll be speaking at the JFK Lancer conference and also at the CAPA conference, which are being held on November 22-24 in Dallas. There is also an excellent third JFK conference on the same weekend sponsored by the JFK Historical Group. All three of them are fantastic JFK-assassination-related conferences. I highly recommend registering for all three and then picking and choosing which sessions you would like to attend at all three conferences. The registration prices are moderate and it’s a great way to support three great conferences. I will have some of my JFK books at my presentations to autograph and sell at a discounted price. I hope to see you all there!