Trump Supporters Have No Problem With There Being A Quid Pro Quo

I have seen this movie so many times I have the ending memorized.  First, President Trump claimed that no one from his campaign ever met or communicated with the Russians officials who meddled in the 2016 election.  When evidence came out that there were more than 100 meetings and communications between Trump and 17 of his campaign officials, Trump supporters responded that they did not care.  While there may have been meetings or communication between the Russians and the Trump campaign, the campaign did not solicit help in the election!   So there!

Of course, that turned out not to be right either.  Although the President lied and said the Trump tower meeting was about adoption policy, it turns out Trump's eldest son, Don, Jr. was in fact using the meeting to solicit dirt on Hillary Clinton. 

Were Trump supporters bothered by the campaign soliciting help from a foreign power hostile to the United States?  Nope...they just shrugged their shoulders and moved the goalposts again.  This time, the cry by Trumpers was "there is no evidence of collusion."  The Mueller Report proves that!

Of course, the the Mueller Report did nothing of the sort.  The report, in fact, explicitly said the issue of collusion was not being addressed in the report as "collusion" is not a criminal term.  The Mueller Report did, however, details scores and scores of instances in which the Trump campaign warmly welcomed help from the Russians during the 2016 campaign.  Trumpers, of course, did not care that that might constitute "collusion" (although not a criminal conspiracy).   The fact Putin helped Trump win the 2016 election just made Trumpers like Putin more.

Most Trump supporters have since dropped the "no collusion" line.  After all, President Trump has now made it clear, regardless of what happened in 2016, he is perfectly fine colluding with Ukraine and China officials to win the 2020 election.  Trump asked those countries to investigate his political opponents, Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren.  Trump even offered the help of his Attorney General and his private attorney Rudolph Giuliani in finding the dirt. 

It turns out Trumpers never had a problem with Trump colluding with a foreign power to win an American election.  They just needed to move the rhetorical goalpost again.  Now the mantra is, but there was no "quid pro quo!"

Of course, there does not have to be a quid pro quo.  A federal candidate soliciting a foreign country to dig up dirt on the candidate's political opponent is a crime.  Trump not only did that, he used his office in the process - a clear abuse of power.   Nonetheless, whether there was an actual quid pro quo, which would make Trump's abuse of his office and the crime (bribery, extortion, etc.) even worse, Trumpers would have us ignore the President's OBVIOUS implication in the Ukraine phone call, the text messages between the diplomats, and the direct admission by the President's Chief of Staff, Nick Mulvaney, who said during a press conference there was a quid pro quo, i.e. that the already appropriated military aid to Ukraine would not be provided unless Ukraine helped the United States investigate the origins of the investigation into the Russians interference in the 2016 election.

Does anyone really believe that if presented with evidence that the President of the United States extorted political dirt from a foreign power to try to win the 2020 election, Trumpers would say that is unacceptable?  Of course not.  Here's how the movie ends...Trumpers do not care.

Trumpers, after all, are the same people who said it is perfectly okay that the President invited terrorists to break bread with him Camp David on the eve of the 9/11 anniversary. They think it is just swell that the President celebrates brutal dictators as friends, while turning his back on our allies and, in the case of the Kurds, abandoning them to be slaughtered.  That President Trump refuses to speak out for human rights and the protesters in Hong Kong seeking freedom, is perfectly fine to Trumpers.  President Trump  has repeatedly demonstrated nothing but contempt for this nation's democratic values and the Constitution, and has indicated a willingness to put this nation's national security at risk for his own personal political reasons. Trumpers are okay with that. 

Now imagine for a second that any of the above were positions taken by President Obama or a President Hillary Clinton.  Think Trumpers would say such behavior is okay by those Democrats?  Of course not.  Trumpers would be screaming about how awful, how un-American Obama and Clinton were and demand they be impeached. (And they'd be right.) But if President Trump is doing these things, his followers have no problem.  It is the earmark of a cult that whatever the leader of the cult does is by definition right. So too it is with Trump and his Kool-Aid drinking group of followers.

A patriot is someone who consistently stands up for American values and principles, regardless of the what jersey the politician is wearing. Trump supporters should stop pretending that their blind loyalty to a man who has demonstrated he cares not one bit about American values is somehow patriotic.  Being a hypocrite does not make one a patriot.