Donald Trump is a monster in human form. He cares nothing for his party or his country–only his ego. He is profoundly, and willfully, ignorant of anything that happens outside his own orbit. He sees the country as just another incarnation of the Trump Organization, and believes the presidency is a prize to be savored and exploited–not a public trust. He divides the nation on a daily basis purely in his own interest. He has been a complete disaster as president.
But you knew that, and so did everyone with any sense in 2016; the swing voters in 2020 will be the people who chose to believe the best about him three years ago, and have presumably lost their illusions in the interim. The Ukraine affair consequently won’t show the country anything we haven’t already seen. The impeachment process, therefore, won’t really be about Trump; it will be about the GOP, and where it stands on his abuses of power.
I’m willing to bet that virtually every GOP senator privately views Trump as being completely unfit for office. Are they willing to stand up for the country and the Constitution? Or are they too fearful of the base to do anything but acquiesce to this ever-worsening pattern of behavior? And if the latter, how will the GOP be able to look the voters in the eye after Trump is gone?
It’s hard to be optimistic, but it’s early days, and at a minimum, any Republican member of Congress who supports Trump in the impeachment process will have to explain to the voters why he thinks it was ok for Trump to coerce a foreign government to provide assistance to his campaign. The backlash against the GOP after Watergate was pretty fierce. It could happen again.