The Impact Of What Trump Is Doing Just Gets Worse And Worse

This man is single handedly working to dismantle a fundamental relationship between our national security institutions and the office of the Presidency, and how that relationship is supposed to work. And whether you agree with all of the priorities, or methods, of those institutions, you cannot dismiss the importance of the relationship itself.

If a worthy holder of that office had real concerns about how those institutions worked he would meet with them, find out more about what they do, and how they do it, and then see if the concerns he had had actual merit, and what might be done about it. And he would do this behind the scenes to prevent the kind of wholesale dismissal that Trump has currently propagated. A dismissal that serves only those who seek to thwart our best interests.

Trump however, as a self centered sociopath, doesn't care about anything but his own inflated sense of omnipotence. That would be bad enough to question his fitness for the Presidency, but he has gone even farther. He has made common cause with one of those very same foreign actors who don't have our bests interests in mind at all. He has made them out to be admirable, and worthy of our friendship even as they seek to undermine us. And there can be no doubt that he has received tangible gain from this behavior from that foreign power.

If this had been a Democratic President, say four years ago, and the same evidence were at hand, the Republicans, and far right in general, would all be foaming at the mouth to have that person's head on a pike, let alone simply seek to declare him unfit for office. And at this point I have great difficulty deciding which is worse, that the Republicans now turn a blind eye to the whole affair, or that the Democrats seem to be simply sitting on their hands, dumbly waiting for someone to tell them what to do.

One is left absolutely disheartened that so much of our leadership class is either clueless, spineless, or completely duplicitous to what is now going on. History is not going to look kindly at any of the players here; assuming there's anyone left to write an objective history. And if you are not questioning yourself as to how much you have worked to make your ire known to those who represent you in Washington DC then you made yourself an accomplice.

Trump Feud Over Russia Intel Raises Deeper Concerns, Experts Say

by BENJY SARLIN