"We're Guilty of Letting Him Get Away with It"

"In a sense, it would be more reassuring for the robustness of America's civic health were investigators to expose Trump as the recipient of laundered Russia money, or of colluding with Russian officials, or as having been recruited by the Soviet Union by the Soviet Union in the late 1980s, as one of the wilder conspiracy theories claim. Any of these would at least supply a grubby, opportunistic explanation for Trump's pro-Russian rhetoric; and Americans who voted for him would have an excuse, of sorts, for their folly--namely, ignorance as to what was really going on.
"The likely reality, though, is that the full extent of Trump's morally objectionable views and behavior were wide out in the open throughout the presidential campaign. Trump repeatedly praised a Russian dictator and paid no political price. There's no denying that he also retailed the products of Russian hacking, called upon the Russians to hack his opponent's email, and peddled disinformation. The American people simply didn't care."

James Kirchick in the Los Angeles Times argues that "there is no way to stop a shameless narcissist from exploiting public anger."