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French President Emmanuel Macron welcomes Donald Trump to Paris.

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) Someday, maybe somebody will drain the Washington swamp, but it wont be President Donald Trump, at least not anytime soon.

In fact, in the battle between Trump and the swamp, the swamp is clearly winning.

Some of Trumps critics see him as the biggest swamp monster of them all, but however you characterize him or Washington, the president is clearly losing the fight against Congress, the bureaucracy, and the media in the nations capital.

For that matter, comparing official Washingtons environment of runaway egos, rampant sense of entitlement, and disconnect from the rest of the country to a swamp does some disservice to swamps.

Whether or not there was any actual collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign to sabotage the U.S. election hardly matters anymore, because the capitals obsession with the issue has, well, swamped everything else and brought government activity to a virtual standstill.

Whats a besieged president to do? Its tempting to say he should hop aboard Air Force One and go to Harrisburg, Pa., or Warsaw, Poland, or Mar-a-Lago anywhere far away from the Washington cesspool.

After all, his address last week to the cheering Poles assembled in Warsaws Krasinski Square was hailed by the Wall Street Journal editorialists as Trumps defining speech. Going to Paris this week for Bastille Day was probably a good idea.

Or Trump could spend more time at his golf courses in Florida and New Jersey, pretending to conduct business or maybe just playing golf. It would be time better spent than fighting the quicksand in Washington.

It certainly seemed to help the presidencies of Ronald Reagan and the younger George Bush that they spent a lot of time at their ranches. Washington, at the end of the day, is a Democratic swamp and Republican presidents are better off somewhere else.

Democrats, however, seem to thrive in the Washington miasma. For someone with Barack Obamas yuppie proclivities, the White House was a hip place to entertain his new Hollywood friends.

Bill and Hillary Clinton, for their part, literally had no place else to call home. The Obamas and Clintons were able to move into mansions of their own only after they left office and could exploit the presidency to make some serious money.

Trump may be far from anybodys notion of an ideal president, but it is Washington that is the gravest threat to our democracy. That was the case under Obama, remains the case under Trump, and, absent some real draining, will remain the case under his successor.

However ineptly, Trump at least is making a show of fulfilling some of his campaign promises. God alone knows what the Republicans and Democrats in Congress think they are doing. It has little to do with the welfare of the voters who elected them.

And the entrenched bureaucracies deep state, shallow state, whatever seem to have free rein for backstabbing, sabotage or just plain sloth. Our intelligence agencies seem more nefarious in reality than in Jason Bournes worst nightmare.

Trump, with all his imperfections, is merely the symptom of this decay, not the cause. Voters supported him because their loathing for Washington denizens was so great. There may be temporary relief in scapegoating him, but replacing him with Mike Pence wont change anything in Washington.

This was the message from the Democratic lieutenant governor of California, Gavin Newsom, who is running for governor of the state in the 2018 election, who urged his fellow party members to drop the Russia issue.

It doesnt do anything for Democrats, he said on MSNBCs Morning Joe, a program not known for its Trump sympathies. Its a loser, and I dont know what more evidence you need. I mean, at the end of the day, even if you game this thing out, you get rid of Trump, youre left with a guy whos out there talking about conversion therapy. It doesnt do anything for the Democratic Party and our agenda.

But Democrats in Congress are frustrated that the Russia story is overshadowing their efforts to block Republican attempts to repeal Obamas health-care reform.

Republicans, for their part, dont seem unduly worried about the Russia hysteria, including the recent disclosures about a meeting between Donald Trump Jr. and a shadowy Russian lawyer that Trump critics see as a veritable smoking gun for collusion.

FiveThirtyEights Perry Bacon commented that the reaction to these revelations from congressional Republicans has generally been muted criticism and, wherever possible, outright silence.

He goes on to say that the Republican reaction to the Russia stories is what really matters most. Because ultimately any consequences for the president will depend on congressional action, and right now, Congress is led by Trumps party.

In the meantime, one way or the other, the swamp will continue to bog down the administration. What we want simply doesnt matter. The swamp has taken on a life of its own.

Excerpt from:
Opinion: The Washington swamp, not Trump, is real threat to democracy - MarketWatch