If you’re struggling to make sense of politics right now, you’re not alone. But if you thought our politics was out of kilter with reality, think for a moment about America.

It was an extraordinary week in Washington. In the House impeachment hearings in Congress, Gordon Sondland – a millionaire Trump donor and US Ambassador to the EU – testified there was an orchestrated effort by Trump to pressure the Ukrainian government to pursue an investigation into his political rival Joe Biden.

President Donald Trump insists he has done nothing wrong. Credit:AP

This was damning stuff. Sondland claimed there was a clear “quid pro quo”. In exchange for a Biden investigation by the Ukrainian government, there would be an Oval Office meeting between Trump and Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelensky. In addition, Sondland said he believed the freezing of US military aid to Ukraine was done with the intention of extracting an investigation.

In a properly functioning democracy, this would be enough to take down a head of government or state. Democratic leaders simply don’t entice – or blackmail – other governments to attack their political enemies and interfere in their national elections. Country has to come before partisanship.