Up until this disastrous blunder by Putin, there was a certain willingness to overlook or at least balance out his obvious faults with his apparent desire to blunt the forward progress of globalism, at least in his own domain.
That made him a mixed sort of figure, along the lines of “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.”
Whatever the Putin camp’s explanations, this aggression against Ukraine cannot be justified on any level. It is dangerous not only for Ukrainians but for all of us; there are various ways this could spiral out of control into a regional or even global conflict. It could encourage similar adventures by China and Iran, among other bad actors.
There won’t be any potential for the Democrats to convince new people of their Russia-Trump fantasies, that ship sailed and won’t be back in port. Some will always believe them no matter what, many never did believe them and this doesn’t change the equation. More obviously, Putin waited for a weak leader who he feared less than Trump. That would also apply to Hillary Clinton although I think the chances of Biden losing his cool and pressing the button for oblivion are less than for her to have done it (quite possibly in an alcoholic stupor). She really should realize that history has rejected her and perhaps reflect on the reasons why, they couldn’t even use fraud to get her elected.
No one likes "aggression". But you can bet if China or North Korea decided to annex Mexico and then put a bunch of troops there and declare Mexico a Chinese satellite country....you can bet there would be plenty willing to invade Mexico.