Some say we should heavily support Ukraine, despite its dubious strategic value, because we sympathize with the yearning of the Ukrainian people to be free from Russian tyranny. But how can you care about the Ukrainian people without caring about corruption?
Ukraine isn't just a country with a corruption problem. It's more like a corruption problem with a flag. Political corruption is practically the national industry. If you're looking to set up a shady big-money deal, Kyiv sells shadows.
Not coincidentally, Ukraine also has a dismal economy for ordinary people, with per capita income comparable to Bangladesh. It's never going to get any better with oligarchs looting the country and creating an environment where honest entrepreneurial success is impossible.
The Bidens knew that, but they didn't care. They dipped into the sewer of corruption to make a fast buck without a second thought for how they were perpetuating a system that keeps the average Ukrainian in poverty.
Impeachment Theater Day One dispensed with the notion that investigating Ukrainian corruption and the Biden connection was inappropriate or unnecessary - the Democrats' own "star witnesses" testified it was a vital American interest to do so.
And of course it IS clearly a vital interest, with both a huge amount of U.S. taxpayer dollars and the future of the Ukrainian people on the line. Members of the permanent bureaucracy testified they've been ineffectually complaining about it for years under prior administrations.
Strongly Worded Letters clearly don't get anything done when it comes to pushing for reform in Ukraine. Clearly something more forceful had to be done, although the permanent bureaucracy seems quite comfortable with pouring U.S. money into black holes forever.
Impeachment Theater boils down to both a pointless argument over whether the permanent foreign policy bureaucracy serves the President or vice-versa, and a gossipy squabble over whether this particular POTUS had pure motivations when investigating an obvious problem.
If you really care about Ukrainian people, you should be glad someone finally tried to do something about the corruption that choked the economic life out of them for generations. Impeachment Theater made it very clear the bureaucracy wasn't going to do anything about it. /end
