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From one corner of what we used to call the Western world to another, democracythe notion that a free people can freely select their leaders and then trust them enough to give them the room to leadis in deepening trouble. Increasing shares of the population believe the system no longer works, that only dividing into tribes, flexing muscle and going way outside the box will protect "us" against "them."

Sometimes that works out, sometimes not. Israel is headed for its third election in a year. The United Kingdom finally has its Brexit champion in Boris Johnson, but at the risk of dissolving the U.K. and rekindling the hypernationalism that almost destroyed the world twice over. Closer to home: Chicago rejected conventional powers such as Toni Preckwinkle and Bill Daley in favor of a little-known former prosecutor who best represented change; Lori Lightfoot's mayoralty is a work in progress.

And then there's the impeachment of Donald Trumpin some ways the biggest challenge American democracy has faced in many decades. The challenge is stark as the division is reflected among this state's congressional delegation: Every Democrat voted "yes" and every Republican "no." And, in my view, both major political parties are failing the test.

I sympathize and largely agree with the Democratic dismay at the performance of Trump, both as president and as a person. Someone who would literally sell out the health of our planet to create a few jobs in coal country, someone who would hold the futures of more than a million young Dreamer adults hostage to satisfy the nativist fringe, someone who would suggest that late U.S. Rep. John Dingell of Michigan burns in hell because his widow backed impeachment, deserves no respect.

But changing that situation is the stuff of elections. Whether or not you or I like it, Trump was elected president.

In seeking to overturn the results of the 2016 electionand Republicans are right, that is the effect of impeachmentDemocrats need to have at least a semblance of national unity behind them, lest the GOP turn the tables next time a Democrat is president. But they don't. Though the Muller report found substantial evidence of an apparent cover-up, it did not make a case for alleged collusion with Russia by Trump and his inner circle. Though Trump in my view did try to shake down Ukraine to damage a domestic political rival, former Vice President Joe Biden, the country is divided down the middle on whether proof of that is sufficient. The votes to convict are not there in the Senate.

The Democrats would have been better off to censure and not impeach. The unprecedented rebuke would help their 2020 nominee, and maybe divide Republicans, making a case for change to voters. Instead, they overplayed their hand.

If Democrats failed to listen to voters, however, Republicans are totally deaf.

Where is the GOP outrage that this president invited Russian and then Ukrainian interference in our election? Where is the objection when this president forbids from speaking aides who could give firsthand testimony about what occurred, testimony that congresses for two centuries have routinely received? Where is the recognition that members of a trial juryand that's what the U.S. Senate isneed to at least try to be impartial and not work as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has to coordinate everything with Trump's defense team?

I'm old enough to remember what happened when a Democratic president, Bill Clinton, was impeached for hitting on a young White House aide and then lying about it. Though he wasn't convicted, leaders of his party here and nationally castigated him. He apologized for his actions. Where's the apology from Trump, the vow not to sin again? It doesn't exist. There is "nothing" to apologize for or express regrets about, only "perfect" phone calls, he says.

Perhaps all of this will be a distant memory in a few months. I fear not. The Trump impeachment has been a fiasco for democracy, on both sides.

See more here:
Trump impeachment is a fiasco for democracy -- on both sides - Crain's Chicago Business