An unintended (?) consequence of the corruption of public norms practiced by the Obama administration, the Clinton campaign, and the FBI as revealed in the Durham report is the elevation of former President Donald Trump. In a just world, Trump would be an embarrassing former President. We have plenty of those. (We'll have another when President Joe Biden leaves office.) Electing embarrassing presidents is the American way.
But instead of his deserved status as an embarrassing ex, Donald Trump now holds the status of a vindicated martyr. I didn't say that his followers think he's a vindicated martyr. He is a vindicated martyr. The left did that. We all laughed in 2016 when candidate Trump said the Obama administration was spying on his campaign. He was right. Many were skeptical, to say the least, when Trump claimed that his alleged collusion with Russia was a completely fabricated and fictional hoax, a "witch hunt." He was right again.
So instead of a former president whose morals are questionable (at best), whose relationship with the truth is strained, and whose personality is repellent to many, Trump can with some justification portray himself as no less moral, no less repellent, and probably more truthful than his political enemies. Trump may not deserve this elevated status, but gifts aren't deserved, they're freely given, and Trump's martyr status is a gift from the left.
Trump will now be that much harder to beat in 2024. If you're happy about that (and many are), send a note of thanks to Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and James Comey. If you're troubled by that, Durham has shown you who's to blame.
