In my opinion, we are all being played by the Russia story. It is a smoke screen to deflect attention away from more meaningful legislation that should be underway. Both parties and the mainstream media love this because it gives politicians an excuse for their lack of ability to move legislation and mainstream media loves it because it attracts ratings.

This type of political game (on both sides) has been played for as long as I can remember. Each side looks for a smoking gun and the other downplays while nothing meaningful gets accomplished.

But if we want to continue to play the game, I think we should also focus on what was uncovered by the hacking.

We saw the dirty laundry of a political party exposed.

We saw how the Primary was stolen from Bernie Sanders and the playing field slanted dramatically toward Clinton.

We saw the use of divisive politics within a political party to target via religion, race, gender, etc.

We saw a mainstream media that provided their chosen candidate with questions to a debate in advance of the actual debate.

We saw the incumbent team use government institutions for opposition research.

We saw dileberate leaking of confidential information and the unmasking of US citizens for political purposes.

We saw inappropriate conversations on airplanes and active criminal investigations being altered to fit a specific narrative.

I am sure that I am missing additional examples of the abuse of power that was uncovered. While I am not in favor of the method used to uncover this, I don't understand why we are not discussing it?

From my perspective what was uncovered is just as discussion worthy as the method used to fin it.

And this type of behavior will continue on both sides until the population rises up displays that they no longer have the appetite for it.