From 2001 to 2009, the Bush Administration violated the Constitution and the rule of law in the United States. President George W. Bush illegally diverted funds from fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan to prepare for an attack on Iraq, and lied to Congress to justify invading that country. Nearly 5,000 American soldiers died in a country that had not attacked us and posed no threat. Bush illegally spied on Americans without search warrants and denied prisoners the right to fair trials. He unconstitutionally repudiated the Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty and the Geneva Conventions. Bush illegally gave Americans' tax dollars to religious charities. Members of his administration illegally revealed an undercover CIA officer's identity for partisan gain, and when one of them was convicted of obstruction of justice, Bush commuted his sentence. Instead of doing anything real to stop Bush's crimes, Congress made a handful of symbolic gestures.

From 2009 to 2016, President Barack Obama continued Bush's policy of spying on Americans without search warrants. Though Congress passed (and Obama signed) the USA Freedom Act scaling back the surveillance state, no one who broke the law in the first place was ever charged. Though Obama signed an executive order banning torture (as if it had ever been legal), no Bush Administration officials who ordered torture (or carried out those illegal orders) were ever prosecuted. In the few cases where charges were filed, Attorney General Eric Holder's Justice Department dropped the charges -- even in cases where the victim had died under torture. In some cases, Holder's Justice Department defended Bush Administration officials in court. Infamously, Holder relentlessly prosecuted low-level whistleblowers while refusing to bring criminal charges against wealthy and powerful banks that committed mortgage fraud.

From 2001 through 2016, Congress set a horrifying precedent: a Democratic-majority Congress will not impeach members of the executive branch who break the law, and a Republican-majority Congress will not impeach members of their own party. The Bush and Obama Administrations agreed: senior government officials who break the law will not be held accountable by their peers or by their successors. As far as they were concerned, the President and his staff are above the law.

What changed? When running for President, neither George W. Bush nor Barack Obama said they intended to break the law when elected.

Donald Trump did.

(For a partial list of illegal things Trump promised to do, see the Open Letter to the Members of the Electoral College.)

For a brief overview of who Donald Trump is and what he stands for -- written before the election -- see Who is Donald Trump. For a comparison between Judeo-Christian values and Trump's values, see A Biblical Response to Donald Trump. Understanding Trump's Appeal examines the economic and social forces Trump exploited to convince millions of Americans to vote for him. Trump's Cabinet examines the people currently in charge of the executive departments. An alarming number of them want to outlaw abortion and contraception, even in cases of rape or medical emergency. Moreover, nearly all the people Trump named to lead those departments are hostile to their departments' missions. (For instance, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos wants to abolish the Education Department.) The Election: Past and Ongoing Voter Suppression explores the first Presidential election held after the Supreme Court struck down the Voting Rights Act. Disinformation, Foreign and Domestic details how (and why) Russian dictator Vladimir Putin supervised efforts to hack into American computers, break American laws, and flood American social media with pro-Trump propaganda before the election. Trump and his campaign members have been covering this up ever since -- which amounts to obstruction of justice and aiding the enemy as accessories after the fact. Trump's America explores how Trump has used the Presidency so far. The Case Against Trump describes how Trump has committed impeachable offenses since the day he was sworn in. Finally, What Do We Do describes how to fight fascism (lobby Congress and vote). It details what more we can do at the national, state, and local levels -- and how to prevent this from happening again.

Legacy Links: [But Today, I Confess: Political Satire in Verse] | [Obamawatch] | [The Legacy of George W. Bush]