> It didn’t matter that there was nothing bad coming from China or Russia or Nigeria. All that mattered back then is that he had dirt on the US.

Because liberals hate America, right? This sort of thinking from conservatives baffles me. Improvement of any sort - personal, cultural, political - depends on acknowledging legitimate criticism. US citizens aren't required to be blindly loyal to their country. To state an obvious near-tautology, the only way to make things better is to encourage and facilitate useful criticism, so that bad things can be improved.

The relative lack of freedom to criticize is exactly why so many autocratic states become mired in corruption; there's no non-destructive mechanism for accountability and change in government.