To some degree, all of our foreign policy is extortion. We’re one of the most powerful nations on earth with the biggest and best economy. We give out tons of foreign aid. We sell weapons. Everybody wants to be friends with us. There are always conditions to that friendship. It’s a quid pro quo.
The question isn’t even whether there’s a quid pro quo. The question is: Who benefits?
The aim of US foreign policy should always be to spread (philosophically) liberal democracy.
OR to derive some benefit for the American people.
It has never been and should never be acceptabke for an American official to use that status solely for their own personal gain. That’s corrupt, banana republic ********. Ironically, it’s exactly what Obama/Biden and the rest of the world were trying to STOP in Ukraine.
Thats exactly what Trump is accused of, here. The complaint says he leveraged the desire of Ukraine to ingratiate itself with America to serve his own personal interest to the detriment of American interests. It lays out a very systemic and premeditated attempt to do that.
If that’s what Biden did, then by all means exile him to Elba, but all of the evidence so far suggests that Biden acted in a way that served American policy interests by forcing out a prosecutor who was protecting corrupt oligarchs who were standing on the shoulders of the Ukranian people and hampering foreign development in that country. It may have served his self interest, but even that case is hardly air tight.
What Biden did, he shouldn’t have been the one to do it. What Trump is accused of never should have been done at all, the way it was done.
This is remedial fundamentals of government. Remedial fundamentals of right and wrong. You guys know this stuff. Stop debasing yourselves over petty tribalism. The Republican Party can find somebody better.