How The “Russians Hacked Us” narrative hurts President Obama’s legacy

As the transition of power from President Barack Obama to President-Elect Donald Trump continues, two storylines remain prominent. First, is the issue of the incoming Trump Administration and its apparent ties to the Russian government. There has been a narrative advanced in the political mainstream that claims the Russians influenced the presidential election and undermined the Democratic Party to help President-elect Trump get elected.

The other storyline is the legacy of President Barack Obama.

There will be a number of things that President Obama will be remembered for. On a personal level, many apolitical and leftwing Americans identified with him, viewing him as a more down-to-Earth politician with a fun family. He did talk shows and played with popular culture, masterfully playing the art of outreach as he did in his 2008 campaign.

The other is his politics.

As fun as the President may or may not be, that may be the only positive point on his record. Being interviewed by a comedian who drinks cereal from her own bathtub hasn’t helped him settle the score in the Middle East, reign in the surveillance state, or fix the broken economy.

What’s worse? Going on late night talk shows and taking nice vacations hasn’t even helped keep the electoral process secure.

Democrats are currently sounding the alarm on supposed Russian involvement, namely with the hacks that exposed numerous Democratic Party figures. The fact that Debbie Wasserman-Schultz had a significant bias and the Democratic National Committee had tilted the balance in Hillary Clinton’s favor is not the problem, but rather the fact that it was outed.

In any case, if we assume the Russians were the ones that were more transparent than our own political elite, then it exposes a huge inability of the Obama Administration to keep the United States of America safe.

Cyber security is the modern threat of our era. Hacking is resulting in breaches of multiple companies ranging from credit cards to e-mail. Governments regularly are attempting to penetrate digital firewalls and gain access to opposition secrets. Now governments are attempting to turn the tables on this election cycle.

Where was President Obama as this was going on?

The Russian narrative is nothing new, as it’s been a theory for quite some time. Since Wikileaks stopped being a hero of the left, many Democrats have alleged they’re a Russian front. If our intelligence agencies were aware of this, why wasn’t the President aware? If the intelligence information was forwarded along, why didn’t the President receive it? If the intelligence information was forwarded along and he did receive it, why wasn’t anything done?

At best, this is incompetence. At worst, this is sinister.

The implication here is that the Obama Administration is not properly equipped to keep this country safe from cyber threats. If this is the case, it is fortunate for America that he is leaving office soon. But it then calls the last several years into question and whether we ever really were safe from foreign digital intruders.

At worst, something sinister is going on here. The Obama Administration did not show serious concern until after the presidential election, where we all know who won. Would the current outrage be shown over supposed Russian involvement had Hillary Clinton won? It seems as though concern only was shown because the Democratic President’s preferred candidate failed.

The Obama legacy is one of incompetence.