All Americans should be pleased with the end of the collusion illusion.

Hey, that rhymes! You can smell the giddiness emanating from your phone when you read all that shit. From the day Trump started his presidency until now, the political class in America has kept their standards for him so low that he can elicit favorable coverage simply by not murdering a puppy on live television. The issuance of Barr’s letter—which clears Trump of obstruction charges but shouldn’t be taken at face value otherwise—represents a victory for Trump not over Mueller, but over a mainstream press that, in order to dodge charges of bias, always holds Republicans to the lowest possible standard. Donnie Jr. is gonna go shoot down a spotted owl to celebrate the occasion.

This is the Republican Party’s big prize for years of gaming the refs and viciously spinning any news in their favor. They made it so that it’s widely portrayed as good news that the president is somehow not a Russian double agent. Again, not exactly a high bar to clear, but this asshole needed two years to clear it. The investigation itself led to a ton of indictments for dozens of people and actual jail time for the likes of Paul Manafort, but I guess it's a win because there was no pee tape/evidence of active collusion? Meanwhile, a Democratic 2020 candidate gets raked over the coals for farting in a bowling alley, and liberals as a whole get framed as a bunch of Seth Abramsons who put all their eggs into Mueller’s basket. Their “hysteria” over this Russia business was definitely just that and nothing more. No hysteria gets to be real. For now, the culmination of waiting for this inquiry to wrap up is just another occasion for liberals like me to eat shit, as if we haven’t done enough of that for years now.

That’s the most depressing aspect of what’s happened so far. Even without knowing what the Mueller Report will contain, the past two days serve as a painful reminder that whatever is in it—and I’m still foolishly hoping for piss-tape screen grabs on every page—will get both sides–ed into oblivion anyway. For both sides of the D.C. power structure—media, party leaders, lobbyists, etc.—Trump potentially beating the rap was always the preferred outcome, because it meant everyone could go back to business as usual, and it meant no pesky impeachment would prevent them from getting another two-plus years of Trump coverage. Steny Hoyer probably went out for fucking pizza to celebrate. Here was the New York Times editorial board two days ago, saluting Trump even BEFORE Barr had written his missive, and declaring the Mueller report “a vindication of the rule of law.” As if the rule of law weren't partially responsible for this country currently being a shitshow. They were just happy Trump didn’t have Mueller arrested and shot, I guess. The process mattered to them more than the result, which means Trump’s inherent awfulness could be dexterously avoided.

This is what happens when you hand coverage of a vital investigation over to a bunch of procedural fetishists: Members of the political machine who were perturbed by Trump’s willful disregard of their precious norms and hoping those norms would survive his onslaught. They had no better paladin for their cause than Mueller, a respected D.C. establishment lifer who has spent the past two years wearing white shirts to work and doggedly investigating the president without getting chesty about it. David Von Drehle of The Washington Post, no stranger to propping up D.C. elites, even went so far as to call him “a real-life Atticus Finch.” The Times is adamant that Mueller’s full report should be released for public consumption, seemingly less because of what could be in it and more because they deem it the proper course of action. It’s what Bob would have wanted.

This is the system at work. The American political system feeds on corruption from the right and complacency—plus also some corruption, too!—from the left. It’s the system that gave us Trump, and it’s the system that exists almost exclusively to perpetuate itself. Liberals like me had to rely on Mueller to somehow blow this presidency apart, because there was no reason to have faith in any other political faction to do the job capably. But that was stupid now, wasn’t it? Everything about our political class was set up to lead to this very moment. That’s the biggest downer of all. For today, Trump wins. Of course he has. The game was always rigged in his favor. And if Mueller doesn’t exonerate the president, I bet the system will still leave enough wiggle room for everyone else who matters to do so.