Washington Post: "Trump Just Colluded With Russia. Openly."

Seems like a pretty fair assessment.

   It doesn't surprise me, and I even have a tiny fragment of sympathy for him. I don't think he colluded with the Rooskies. And he's a pretty simple-minded guy. You're with him or your against him. So he sees the accusations as unfair--which, of course, they have been to a large extent. There are good reasons to investigate, but, running parallel to those are the partisan REEEEEEsistance motives--attribute every bad thing to Trump, and get him by any means possible. (Funny how people who have been fretting about our democracy have often also been promoting efforts to get rid of a democratically-elected President via undemocratic means...) So say Trump's innocent of collusion. He's not particularly objective or fair-minded, and he inclines toward adversarial thinking. So all he really sees is unfairness and political chicanery. 

   I think some people...maybe not a lot of people...but, say, an Obama...would be able to step back and recognize that the investigation was necessary and the the Russians were up to no good, even in the midst of fending off unfair accusations/attacks by the other side. But Trump...no way. He is not such a person. 

   It also seems to me that the people who have been pushing the unfair attacks on Trump--in particular the Russia-related ones--bear a certain measure of responsibility here. Trump should be a better man and a better president--but he isn't. He is who he is, and we know who he is, and most of us realize that unfair attacks on him are just making him worse. La Resistance is to some extent pushing fair criticisms, but it's to some extent pushing unfair ones. And many of them have to realize that the unfair ones are making Trump more Trumpy. He's "doubling down," as we apparently all say now. And that's, to some extent, the strategy of the "resistance:" oppose Trump in every way possible, with the aim of provoking him into saying and doing even dumber things. 

   Incidentally, that's one of the reasons that people like me are contemptuous of the "resistance": we're stuck with Trump. This is a serious situation. DO NOT MAKE HIM TRUMPIER THAN HE ALREADY IS. Or, rather: don't do it just for political reasons. Honest criticisms are permissible--obligatory, actually. Gratuitous, dishonest stupidity aimed at making an irrational guy more irrational...not an intelligent strategy in this case. The "resistance" is willing to risk an even less rational Trump in hopes of having a better chance of getting rid of that Trump. I think that's a bad play. It also illustrates the broader predicament we're in: it is, to some extent, Trump vs. a crazy, vocal, activist left that is more and more influential in the Democratic party. Trump can sometimes seem like a bulwark against them. If I'm tempted at all by that thought, you can bet your ass that a whole lot of people are more than tempted by it.

   The bottom line is still: Trump...publicly and at a meeting with Vladimir F Putin for Chrissake, sided with Russian intelligence agencies that tried to interfere with a U.S. election over U.S. intelligence. There's just really no excusing that.

   Though...one final thought... Imagine that this were someone like Obama. And imagine that there was evidence of Russian electoral interference, but no evidence of collusion by his campaign. And imagine that the GOP and Fox News were rabidly shrieking "collusion!" at every turn and seeing Rooskies behind every bush...and that he had said, basically: Hey, these attacks on me are largely political, and both our countries have acted suboptimally in the past...but we ought to seek a better relationship in the future. I'll bet a lot of Dems would applaud that.

   But, anyway. This is all just bad, so far as I can see.