Who/What bare the most responsibility for the loss of Hillary Clinton?

[Illini Moderate]

Hillary herself is ultimately responsible. She chose to give the paid speeches and to use a private email server. Both of which were incredibly unwise politically and cost her dearly in both the primary and the general election. She was the candidate. She made the dumb decisions.

In addition, I don't understand how any logical person can say that Russia and fake news did not play a huge role. It is a FACT that two years prior to the election Russian operatives had troll farms spreading propaganda and disinformation via social media.

Originally the intention was to undermine American's faith in Washington and the political system. This in turn helped exacerbate the already existing "anti establishment" attitude displayed by the public. Hillary being a former First Lady, Senator, and Secretary of State was obviously negatively affected by this.

Later once the primaries began, Russia began the next phase, which was to boost specific anti establishment candidates (Bernie and Trump) and attack their respective opponents (Hillary, Cruz, Rubio, etc..)

The DNC hack was conducted by Russians and then the discoveries were provided to Wikileaks who coordinated the "drip drip" release to occur during moments of highest impact (right before the DNC, the night of the P*ssy tape). This helped to not only derail the momentum of the Clinton campaign, but to help soften any damage Trump received from his gaffes and scandals.

Finally, the distribution of propaganda and disinformation via social media was implemented in order to depress Democratic turnout for Clinton. This was done in different ways. There were pages, memes, and fake graphics used to boost third party candidates such as Stein by impersonating disaffected left wingers. These bots and trolls would falsely portray minority groups and advocates, who would insist that Clinton was a "traitor" of the  left and that voters should choose the "true progressive" in Stein. They would also often use Bernie's image to sway his primary supporters against turning out for Clinton.

There were also many "MAGA trolls" who would help boost turnout for Trump by spreading viral memes and hashtags such as #lockherup or #Hillaryforprison. These trolls also often spread misleading and false information about Clinton. (Examples include memes insisting Clinton called nurses "glorified maids" and conspiracies about Hillary being a serial killer.) A Russian who worked for one of these organizations described the comments and memes as pure propaganda that was thought to be so ridiculous and clearly false that they would never work in Russia, however they clearly did on the American public.

It is completely ridiculous to insist that a two year long smear campaign organized by the Russians, which specifically targeted swing state voters was not at all effective. On Facebook alone, it is estimated that up to 126 million people viewed posts planted by the Russians. Twitter found over 30,000 automated accounts with possible Russian links that shared over 1.4 million tweets which were viewed nearly 300 million times.

To deny that this had a significant effect on the outcome of the election is just pure denial. While it cannot be said that it actually SWUNG the election, it should still be considered a possibility. However that is not the point. The point is that a foreign power has been PROVEN TO HAVE INTERFERED in our democracy and many in this country (including the President) don't believe that its a serious issue as long as it got their candidate elected. This isn't being pointed out to discredit Trump or his victory. This is a matter of national security and should be treated as such.

SORRY FOR THE LONG POST RANT OVER