Lately I've been thinking about NY Times columnist David Brooks. Brooks was a leading proponent of the 2003 Iraq War, and followed this up by supporting John McCain and Sarah Palin. He was against Obama and supported Republicans throughout most of the Obama presidency.
One thing lacking from the Obama presidency was accountability for the misdeeds that were done in the preceding presidency of George W. Bush. The Iraq War was a disaster of epic proportions, and the housing bubble and collapse were aided and abetted by top Wall Street and government officials. Obama perhaps did not have the power to tackle these misdeeds and hold the perpetrators accountable. He would have been opposed by the establishment, including relative centrists such as David Brooks.
Only with the election of Trump have influential people such as Brooks come to support accountability in the executive branch. Now we are getting investigations into government corruption. There have been a number of charges brought so far. Importantly, the charges relate more to business as usual than to do any particular crimes of the Trump Administration. Trump and his associates are more prone to lie blatantly, so they are easier targets, but otherwise the nature of the crimes is not so much different from business as usual -- i.e. going over the line in lobbying activities, taking advantage of political connections for international wheeling and dealing, political dirty tricks, etc.
Thus, in his perverse way, Trump has been a godsend for clean politics in the United States.
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