Now, with the campaign of 2016 over, I'm going to have some time on my hands, so I thought I'd run a treatment by you, for the next "House of Cards," or "West Wing" in the "Political Manipulation" genre.
Move over Beau Willimon. Take a hike, Aaron Sorkin. I got this.
How's this: Deep in the bowels of the Kremlin, the Russian leader sees the walls closing in on him. His former Soviet empire has collapsed, and while he has had some success in reclaiming parts of the former union, he is stymied. Former member states are more attracted to the West, his oil based economy is collapsing with the price of oil as America has found its way to energy independence and Western Europe is shifting to renewable energy. NATO is stronger than ever and Western Europe is seducing away the best and the brightest from Russian universities. It's like before the wall fell--Russians are turning their backs on mother Russia and voting with their feet, going West.
Muslim fundamentalists are skulking about Moscow and Chechnya.
His first move is obvious--keep the civil war in Syria going, create refugees who flood by the hundreds of thousands across the open borders of the European Union, destabilizing Italy, Greece, straight through to Germany and Sweden, even on to England, This proves to be so much easier and more successful than he had anticipated, he decides to go for a bigger fish. What brought down the European Union so quickly? Financial strains set up a sense of foreboding, but in Europe the race card is always available and easy to play, and looking at America, our anti hero thinks: Why not?
All he needs is a dedicated team of hackers, and the right man. He thinks he may have just the guy--a rich playboy who has all that money can buy, but he has grown weary and bored with the limited powers and pleasure money can buy. What this man yearns for is respect and the power only a head of state can claim.
But standing in his way is a famous politician who seems to be President in waiting. There seems no path to block her, until our Russian reads a posting by a renegade movie director, outlining the path to victory through the rust belt states of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Wisconsin and Michigan, where white men have lost factory jobs and are looking for someone to blame. Throw in a twist of fear of Muslim terrorists and mix a dollop of racism aimed at the Latinos streaming across the Rio Grande and you've got a formula for success.
It's a long shot, but timing is everything in politics and getting hacked leaks suggesting the opposition is guilty of some unnamed crime, enlisting sympathetic FBI agents and the whole structure begins to crumble.
The one element the Russian cannot control is the polls, which still show the opponent safely ahead, which is where the hacking talents of the Russian security forces come in handy, as voting places feed their data into central banks. There are fifty states, but only those four rust belt states, Florida and North Carolina are necessary. You don't have to crack all 50.
A week before the election, the hackers try a dry run, cracking a little known New Hampshire company which manages data for Amazon, Spotify, electronic medical record systems and suddenly one Friday all of these systems stop working. Curious stories about how this was done using electronic devices as diverse as baby monitoring things to garage door openers, all made in Korea by a single company which uses a single plate with a single engraved password. The hack is eventually uncovered, reversed, but not before the entire East Coast has been paralyzed.
The Russian knows his system is big enough and effective.
On election night, the surreal, shocking victory unfolds to the horror of half the nation, and the delight of the other half. It just seems surreal, because it is not truly real. It's been plotted out.
Nobody suspects a thing. Not even the Russian's cat's paw.
All we need now is a good title.
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