Why were liberals so desperate to believe that Mueller would save democracy?

[brooklynite]

Washington Post

The conclusion of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s report on his investigation of President Trump last weekend came as an anticlimax. Attorney General William P. Barr’s summary makes plain that while the report does not conclude that the president committed crimes, it does not exonerate him, either. Yet after month upon month of anticipation, the investigation had become so freighted that the non-release of a non-exoneration led the New York Times to headline its analysis, “A Cloud Over Trump’s Presidency Is Lifted,” while The Washington Post reported that Hill Democrats were giving up on impeachment for now.

To understand why this nonevent was so significant, we have to examine the function that Mueller’s report served for Democrats while it was being written. Because they lacked any real power during most of the Trump administration to counter the trauma of the 2016 election and everything that’s come since then, the idea that Saint Robert would slay the orange dragon held appeal as a salvation myth. Trump’s opponents could remain hopeful that, even though they didn’t have the means to do it, somebody else would fix the almost impossible problem of how to oust a president they viewed as illegitimate and catastrophic.

The plot line into which Democrats cast Mueller’s investigation came right out of a legal procedural. The star of this show was supposed to have been an upright lawman, who — with his impeccable credentials as an investigator, a prosecutor and a Republican to boot — would prove Trump’s villainy and deliver him to justice.

Many expressed their hope in Mueller’s investigation quietly and soberly. The journalist Garrett Graff argued for patience, writing in Wired last year that Mueller “always knows more than we think.” Others were less restrained. The prominent Twitter account @ProudResister crowed in January that Mueller’s indictments of Russian agents showed that “Trump defends Russia because he is a TRAITOR.” A market for Mueller swag sprung up, from “It’s Mueller Time” beer glasses to Spike Lee’s T-shirts reading “God protect Robert Mueller.” (Spike Lee! Defending an FBI director!)

As long as Democratic leaders could point to the Mueller investigation as reason to postpone direct conflict with the administration, there was little need for them to make politically risky moves. In August, for instance, Roll Call described the strategy of House Democratic leaders, including Rep. Adam B. Schiff (Calif.), as “let special counsel Robert S. Mueller III finish his investigation and issue a report — we’ll decide where to go from there.”

This wasn’t cowardice but calculation. Democratic leaders probably let Mueller carry the hopes and dreams of so many of their base voters because they knew that the Russia issue wasn’t much of a winner with the broader electorate. Newly released findings from the 2018 Cooperative Congressional Election Study (CCES) of 60,000 Americans show conclusively that a belief that the Trump administration colluded with Russia is almost entirely partisan, with fewer independents — and very few Republicans — willing to entertain that notion.

[still_one]

1. I sure didn't

[Hoyt]

2. Read complete article. Depressing, but likely accurate.

[Jarqui]

3. The article is like throwing in the towel at half time

when they're up by a bunch of touchdowns because someone made a bad call.

[gabeana]

4. This again

Did this professor read the report?
The report that has not been read outside of the small # of select eyes in the DOJ is at least 300 pages and likely substantially more than that

We have evidence trump campaign conspired
You dont think so?

[Hoyt]

5. The evidence has been apparent for months, yet GOPers have done nothing and the won't now.

[58Sunliner]

6. "led the New York Times to headline its analysis, "A Cloud Over Trump's Presidency Is Lifted," BS!

Until the mid-terms we had no power, or did someone forget that? Oh, I guess they did. They actually use a bullshit quote from the NY times to bolster their argument. Enough said. The saddest part of this belongs to the complicit media. Not a democrat hoping for a scintilla of democracy.