The Real Russian Hacking Problem

Yesterday's headline from the Los Angeles Times web site read 12 Russians indicted in hacking of Clinton's campaign and computers handling voter registration .  That Russia could be considered to influence the election by hacking into private Democratic Party and Clinton emails shows a major flaw in the United States election system.

The flaw is not that the Russians could hack the Democratic National Committee.  The flaw is that the Democratic National Committee has so much power that trying to affect the workings of the committee is considered as affecting the election.

Neither the Republican Party nor the Democratic Party should be the quasi-governmental entities which they have become today.  The Russians getting access to data from either of these organizations should have about as much effect as somebody accidentally running over a campaign sign.  The way to accomplish this is to have a healthy choice of candidates on the ballot.  Not just a Republican and a Democrat, but also independent candidates and candidates from several other parties.

The real hacking of the election is not that the Russians got information from the Democratic National Committee.  The real hacking is that the Republicans and Democrats have rigged the election system in such a way that it matters.  When are the offending Democratic and Republican Party officials going to be indicted?