So a lot of Americans are pissed off at the Russian government right now. It's now clear that Putin and his cronies played a non-insignificant part in shaping the outcome of the 2016 Presidential election. Which means that Russia is at least partly responsible for saddling us with an indisputably terrible president. What's worse, they took away Americans' trust in the electoral process. Not only is the 2016 election tainted with perceptions of illegitimacy, but there will be a cloud of suspicion hanging over future elections - especially since the government doesn't appear to be doing enough to safeguard the integrity of the voting process. On top of all that, Russia did more than interfere in the electoral process. It also stirred up a lot of ill will and worsened the country's polarization. Look around, listen to what people are saying and read the comments they're leaving on social media: Americans are deeply divided, usually over Trump's policies and conduct. The fact is, Russia hit us pretty hard, and Americans are right to be furious.
However, there are a few things to keep in mind.
First, the US Government has done its own share of meddling in other countries' elections. I don't say that to defend what the Russian government did, but instead to point out the hypocrisy involved. Our government doesn't have the moral high ground here, not even by claiming it was done for "very good reasons." It's also hard to promote democracy in other countries while helping to undermine it in those same places. Now that we're getting a taste of our own medicine, we're realizing how much it sucks.
Second, whether unintentionally or deliberately, our government has antagonized Russia several times since the end of the Cold War. Military alliances and campaigns such as the bombing campaign against Serbia (a staunch Russian ally) and the ongoing military presence in the Balkans, the NATO expansion, and attacks against Russia's former allies, including Iraq, have all been perceived as insults at best and provocations at worse. To get some perspective, imagine how we would feel if the Russian military had done the following: formed a military alliance with Canada, Mexico, and several Latin American nations; bombed and occupied Great Britain; and attacked Israel twice in thirteen years. I think we'd feel more than a little threatened.
Third, and probably most important, Russia didn't create this mess out of thin air. It recognized that America was already pretty divided on many issues, and it poured gasoline on a low-grade fire. There were still healthy feelings of Islamophobia, homophobia, and racial tensions; media outlets willing to publish divisive "news" for ratings and revenue; a decades-long feeling of economic anxiety due to stagnant salaries or poverty wages, growing economic inequality, outsourcing, rising expenses, and ballooning government deficits; civil liberties being chipped away; and the perception of an indifferent political class. 2016 was the "anti-establishment" election; and Hillary Clinton was perceived by some parts of the country as being a significant part of the problem. Russia simply observed the American political and cultural landscape, and saw its opening.
Russia isn't the only one who sees an opening, though. The Russian electoral meddling has given a lot of anti-Russian hawks the pretext they've been waiting for to resume the Cold War, people like John "I never met a war I didn't like" Bolton. You remember him, right? He was George W. Bush's Ambassador to the UN, he was super-hawkish, and he helped sell the flimsy Iraqi WMD intelligence. Why anyone still listens to him at all is a mystery, yet The Hill recently allowed him to write an op-ed, in which he wrote, "The White House can and should now pivot to the real task ahead, which is dealing strategically and comprehensively with Russia's global efforts to enhance its influence." There are other semi-influential people like Bolton in the Beltway, and they're drooling over the possibility of a confrontation with Russia. Judging by her policy ideas, Hillary Clinton was one of them - which was one reason I didn't vote for her. Readopting a belligerent posture toward Russia also gives the anti-Russian crowd to downplay or distract people from domestic problems, and considering how many problems this country has, a useful distraction would probably be welcomed by some people.
America has already been through one Cold War, and it wasn't very fun for most people: the threat of nuclear annihilation, anti-Communist witch hunts and infringements on civil liberties, an multi-decade arms race, money diverted away from schools/hospitals/infrastructure/etc, and so on. Plus, America has a lot of problems at home to solve, and the last thing we need is to focus our attention and resources on an adversary thousands of miles away. So, let's not do that again, okay?
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