Standing outside Congress at 3am, cheeks red, nose dripping, fingers and toes numb, I stare into the camera and think to myself, "what have I got myself into?"

The weather app on my phone tells me it's minus-5 degrees, but "feels like" minus-12.

I'm about to go live into the 7pm News to talk about Donald Trump's impeachment, the second biggest story of his presidency, right behind the election itself.

It's my first story as a new member of ABC's Washington Bureau.

Washington bureau chief David Lipson and camera operator Niall Lenihan get ready to go live outside the Capitol building at 3am. ( ABC News: David Lipson )

And it fits an emerging pattern for me.

In 2010, two weeks after I arrived in the Canberra press gallery as a fresh-faced reporter, Kevin Rudd was rolled as prime minister, setting off the most tumultuous period in Australian politics since Whitlam's dismissal.

Next came Indonesia.

A day after landing a Jakarta in May 2018, a Javanese couple from Surabaya loaded their children onto motorbikes strapped with explosives and blew up three churches in Surabaya.

It was the first in a series of disasters on my watch, which included earthquakes, tsunamis, a plane crash, a pollution crisis and a disputed presidential election that ended in deadly riots.

The ABC's new Washington bureau chief David Lipson was reporting on Jakarta's pollution crisis earlier this year. ( ABC News: Phil Hemingway )

Now, in Washington DC, it's a whole new brand of calamity: the high-stakes battle for the very character of a nation that acts as a blueprint for much of the Western world.

I'm getting to know why Americans love Donald Trump

It can be hard for an outsider like myself to comprehend how Mr Trump's support has remained so rock-solid.

Donald Trump's support has remained fairly steady for the last three years. ( Reuters: Joshua Roberts )

His polling numbers have remained steady through all the "scandals" and despite his concerted attacks on the democratic institutions that have kept America strong for centuries.

It's even harder to grasp how half of Americans think it's OK for the President to engage, even pressure, a foreign nation to announce an investigation into a domestic political rival.

But to understand the United States as we head into 2020, you have to get to know Mr Trump's voters.

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The vast bulk of them are not dummies or racists or low-class, as they are so often portrayed in the press.

Labelling them as "deplorables" was perhaps the second biggest mistake the Democrats made in 2016, right behind choosing Hillary Clinton as their candidate to take on Mr Trump in the first place.

From my early reading of the battlefield, Trump voters are, by and large, everyday working-class Americans who have been ignored by Republicans and taken for granted by Democrats for as long as they can remember.

Now Mr Trump speaks directly to them

More importantly, they are experiencing the best job prospects in decades.

Black and Latino unemployment is the lowest on record.

Wall Street stocks continue to enjoy the longest bull market in American history.

It doesn't matter that significant credit for this should go to the Obama administration, for setting the foundations for recovery after the Global Financial Crisis.

Some economists say America's current economic stability is due to measures taken by the Obama administration. ( Reuters: Joe Skipper )

The lived experience of boom times is happening under Mr Trump.

What would a voter, who has a job for the first time in years, care that their preferred President tried to take down a political rival?

Isn't that what Washington politics is all about?

Donald Trump's impeachment scandal centres around his accusations against Joe Biden's son Hunter. ( Reuters: Carlos Barria )

And while we're at it, they may ask, why was Hunter Biden paid $50,000 a month to work in Ukraine in a field in which he had no experience, while his father was vice-president?

By going after largesse like that, isn't Mr Trump doing exactly what he said he'd do: Draining the swamp?

These are not illegitimate questions for Trump voters to ask

Just as important as understanding the mindset of the people who elected the President, is keeping eyes on the information flow they base their views on.

That means watching a lot of Fox News.

Compared to CNN, the New York Times and the Washington Post, it's a parallel universe.

The most popular shows usually feature a conga line of Republican voices, with barely a peep from Democrats, unless that peep happens to be embarrassing to them.

Despite the fact it's privately owned, Fox News appears to be the closest thing to a propaganda arm of government outside of North Korea or Russia.

It's also the most watched news channel, by far.

You may not see it on Fox, but the evidence that led to Mr Trump's impeachment matters.

And what's happening to America under Mr Trump matters

What he does matters, too.

His attacks on the establishment, the free press, law enforcement, career diplomats and respected bureaucrats, that have the temerity to hold him to account, are having a corrosive effect on American democracy as we know it.

It's straight from the playbook of dictators the world over.

American Kim Fellner fears Donald Trump is taking 'small steps' towards fascism. ( ABC News: David Lipson )

This week, I met Kim Fellner on the fringes of a pro-impeachment rally on the lawns of Congress.

Quietly holding a home-made sign calling President Trump "NOT GREAT", she stood quietly facing the historic dome of the Capitol building.

"My parents were Holocaust survivors," she told me.

"So, we really understand what fascism is. And also, that it begins with small steps. This administration has taken many small steps in that direction."

To be clear, Mr Trump is a long way from being a fascist dictator.

The pillars of democracy, chipped and broken as they are, continue to hold strong.

But if a dictator or despot emerges from all of this noise, we will look back at the Trump presidency for answers as to how America allowed so many "small steps".

Over the next few years here, I look forward to asking the questions.