Responding to this post with its over one hundred comments which strike me as being caught in a powerful left-spinning vortex. Nearly all of them. So I commented on the WEIT site...
**ADDED (30/1): A more sophisticated version of the “So What?” defence.
Me: Australian resident Hong Kong; would have voted for Hillary [if American]
(a) I lean to the "So What?" defence.** Quid pro quos are a normal part of daily politics and foreign affairs. Joe Biden boasted of his Ukrainian QPQ. Trump sought QPQ from Zelensky. So what? Because…
(b) Trump can plausibly claim the QPQ was for info on corruption related to the 2016 election, even if he almost certainly also had its usefulness for 2020 in mind. There was prima facie case for investigation into the Bidens. Because …
(c) Democrats' claim that Hunter/Joe Ukraine corruption is "debunked"is itself a bit rich. Even the NYT says "A subsequent prosecutor cleared Mr.Zlochevsky."* The “subsequent prosecutor” was appointed only after the previous one was fired, under the threat from Joe to hold up $1 Billion in aid (ie. a quid pro quo). Zlochevsky was the boss of Burisma. He was widely considered deeply corrupt. Yet he was cleared by the prosecutor appointed on Biden's initiative. Biden's son, Hunter, was on the board of Burisma. And to all of this we are supposed to believe "nothing to see here folks"?
(d) A removal of Trump would be hugely damaging to America. [as some commenters have acknowledged]*
(e) The bar to impeachment has been lowered and will be used every time the party in the House is different from the party in the WH. This cannot be a good thing.
And I almost forgot: the above is why Bolton's leaked book "revelations" are irrelevant.*By this I mean the hijacking of the election process, by a highly partisan impeachment process (‘Democrats have impeached impeachment’ or view in PDF). Remember that even Pelosi didn’t really want to impeach because she thought it futile, but was forced into it by the left wing in her party.
All in all, as a not-Trump-loving outside observer, I reckon that his removal would be both wrong and dangerous.
Lucky it won't happen.
**ADDED (30/1): A more sophisticated version of the “So What?” defence.
