HitRed wrote:4 years of Russians Russians Russians then impeachment. No incited drumbeat there.
I don't think any sane person has any doubt that Trump did collude with the Russians. Even the
Republican-controlled Senate agreed that fake social media accounts run by Russian intelligence were a major factor in the 2016 election. Yes, most of Trump's henchmen stayed loyal and didn't break under pressure to testify, but you can't seriously think the Russians did this out of the kindness of their hearts.
The impeachment was overdue and more than justified. From the beginning, Trumps term was nothing but pure criminality. Misusing the power of his office to try to subvert an ally to dig up dirt on someone for his own selfish political purposes definitely is a high crime. The fact that by then he had subverted most of the Republicans in the senate to toe the line is unfortunate, but it doesn't change the facts. No sane person could argue that it's right to use the power of your office to dig up dirt on others.
The biggest subversion has been the weakening of congressional oversight. Whenever some Trump flunky was too unqualified to pass Senate confirmation, Trump simply made them a "temporary" appointment and avoided asking for Senate confirmation. More departments than ever before are being run by "temporary" heads. It completely violates the spirit of the Constitution. Senate confirmation is there as a check on irresponsible abuse of executive power. Temporary appointments are meant to be an emergency stopgap, not a permanent state of affairs.
Putting a recent law-school grad who has never tried a case on a Circuit Court (and later bumping her up to a Supreme) simply because of her extremist political views, is just so irresponsible that one's mind recoils trying to absorb it.
Trump's crimes are many and varied. He gutted environmental regulations, with the result that already now toxic filth from refining plants is being dumped on what used to be federally-protected lands. A lot of the contracts are long-term and will be grandfathered in even after regulations are restored, so it will take a generation to clean up the mess.
Similarly, it will take a generation to clean up the disaster caused by the scrapping of the Iran deal. The genius of the Iran deal was that it supported the rise of an Iranian middle class which opposed and curbed the religious extremists. With the scrapping of the deal and the restoration of horrendous sanctions, not only is their a vast increase in poverty among the lower classes in Iran, but more importantly the middle class has been virtually wiped out. The extremists are now back in power, and war has never been more likely. Millions will quite likely die as a result.
In his first three years, Trump increased the deficit more than Obama did in eight years. Where did the money go? Nobody can argue that Americans are healthier or wealthier than they were in 2016, so where did the money go? Most of it was in the form of tax breaks for the ultra-rich, which they promptly sent to their offshore accounts and which will never be spent in any way that even slightly benefits any average American.
One could write a book. In fact, many have. The dog-whistle politics encouraging racists to come out of hiding and organize, the constant lies and misinformation campaigns, the unprovoked attack on allies, the nepotistic hiring of his Ivanka and her squeeze, the attacks on the media, the petty insults and childishness, the petty grift, selling quack medicine during the pandemic. It's just a staggering list of malfeasance in office.
