With Donald Trump, you somehow know that trouble will find him and that impeachment is a question of when rather than if.

Even before being elected into office in 2016, he had made numerous statements (e.g. Mexicans are drug dealers and rapists) and done things (including paying hush money to a porn star) that were beyond the pale, things that could make him, using the parlance of today’s generation, “canceled”.

Once in office, there was no stopping his aversion to political correctness and bad behavior. When a bunch of white supremacists rallied in Charlottesville, North Carolina and one protester was killed, he failed to condemn what was a blatant case of racism and white nationalism.

Neither has Trump made any efforts to improve civility while in the White House. He has regularly attacked women, people of color and even some of the most respected figures in American politics. In international fora, Trump professed his admiration for controversial figures and strongmen, including the likes of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. And then there are his incessant tweets.

Of course, none of these deviations from the norm has risen to the level of criminality. “It’s just Trump being Trump,” as some of his supporters like to say.

But more than just turning United States politics into an ugly spectacle, Trump has in his almost three years in office delivered blow after blow to American democracy. His effort to withhold military aid to Ukraine until President Volodymir Zelenksy launches an investigation into Democratic Party presidential candidate Joe Biden was a barefaced effort to rig what should be a free and fair US presidential election in 2020.

And if a democracy's health could be measured by the power holder’s respect for political opponents, free media and independent judiciary and bureaucracy, after three years of Trump, American democracy is not doing well.

During his 2016 presidential campaign, Trump threatened to jail his opponent Hillary Clinton once he got into office. When he picked William Barr as attorney general earlier this year, one of his primary directives was to launch an investigation into possible wrongdoing by the Clintons.

The Ukraine scandal has also brought to light the effort from Trump to pack bureaucracy with yes-men who would do his dirty work and get rid of professional diplomats like Ambassador Marie Yovanonitch. And who could ignore his daily attacks on the media by calling all negative news about him “fake news” spread by the “corrupt media”.

For Democratic Party congressmen and congresswomen who cast their “yea” votes to impeach Trump on Wednesday, the 45th president is a clear and present danger to American democracy; the impeachment process is part of the checks-and-balances mechanism to prevent the rise of a strongman that would even further abuse his political office for personal gain.

What the House has decided may be annulled by the Senate, now packed with Trump-pliant Republican senators. But the momentous vote on Wednesday indicates that democracy is still alive in America. We just don’t know for how long.

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