By now you’re all aware that Robert Mueller has concluded his inquiry into Donald Trump’s dealings with Russia in the 2016 election, and that Attorney General William Barr sent a four page summary of Mueller’s investigation to Congress. In the summary Barr laid out the case for something Donald Trump has been saying almost daily for the last two years of his Presidency, usually in ALL CAPS with a lot of exclamation points at the end: “NO COLLUSION!!!!” To some degree that’s good to hear, but the fact the Orange Cheeseball-in-Chief is doing a victory lap makes it hard to find that conclusion comforting. I wouldn’t want to know that any President of our country achieved the highest office in our land with the intentional aid of a foreign power, but Barr chooses his words carefully and says in his memo that “this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.”

Let’s consider this point VERY carefully, especially given the smug tone set by a xenophobic misogynistic President who now acts like he’s been fully exonerated. He’s happy to accept the summary of Mueller’s investigation, yet spent an entire year (again in all caps, seemingly yelling at us through his phone) that this was a massive “WITCH HUNT” designed to take him down. That’s far from the point and as he so often does Trump was simply trying to distract us from what’s really going on with a whole lot of sound and fury that frankly signifies nothing whatsoever. Finding out if the Trump campaign colluded with a foreign power was only one aspect of the investigation. Even if the President himself didn’t willfully or knowingly accept any collusion from Russia, it was certainly offered to his campaign, and people in his campaign and/or connection to him personally have been jailed as a result of their mishandling of finances, lies to the FBI, and generally acting like nincompoops.

If you’re no longer concerned that Trump didn’t actively collude with a foreign power to win the Presidency, that’s entirely your right, even though the full Mueller Report has yet to be made public (and we’re set for a Congressional showdown on that front) for us to make up our OWN minds rather than just accepting Barr’s summary. What should be concerning is a repeated character flaw that Trump can’t shake no matter how hard he tries — he’s not a scumbag on his own, he’s a scumbag because he’s in the company of fellow scumbags. How else can we account for the fact that his personal attorney paid hush money to prostitutes and enabled Trump to use his charitable foundation like his own personal bank account? I don’t care what side of the aisle you are on (or if like me you are a registered independent), that’s not a good look for the man entrusted with the safety and security of our nation. Presidents should neither BE scumbags nor ASSOCIATE with scumbags. POTUS 45 fails both of those tests.

I would never ask you to take my word and my word alone for any of this. I would ask you to follow the leading periodicals of our time, the investigative journalists who are tirelessly looking into these questions, and the news anchors who care more about the truth than their network’s ratings. If it doesn’t alarm you that Trump brands coverage of him as “FAKE NEWS” and brands journalists as “ENEMIES OF THE PEOPLE” then you are not living in the same democracy I am. Journalism exists to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. Trump SHOULD be uncomfortable. The same goes for any President given the incredibly fearsome amount of power that they hold. The office should be a serious burden on the person who holds it, and to spend all of your time and effort in that office grousing about how “UNFAIR” it is to be under a microscope shows that you’re not fit to hold the office to begin with. Let’s hope that Congress and a free press continue to make Trump and ALL future Presidents feel a lingering sense of discomfort by their oversight, so that those we entrust with our safety, security and nuclear arsenal are actually fit to do the job.