It was a good day for a bad president when William Barr released a four-page CliffsNotes version of the 22-month Mueller investigation, declaring there’s no case for collusion. This, despite 102 known Russian contacts — including a meeting in Trump Tower — and a string of documented lies by President Donald Trump and his team that led to 34 indictments and five convictions. Roger Stone, the Wicked Witch of the West Wing, is on deck.

It’s too early to understand why Robert Mueller didn’t bring a case against Trump.

Abandoning Occam’s Razor for a moment, let’s remind ourselves that charges must be provable beyond a reasonable doubt. Anything less begins to resemble a lynch mob, and even if the accused did it, that’s not how America works. If it did, it wouldn’t be America, anymore. The process must be legitimate. Could we ever again have faith in a system in which evidence was replaced by what we think we know, and a sense that the end justifies the means?

It’s disingenuous now for Democrats to grumble about Mueller after singing his praises. The same goes for Republicans who leveled months of vitriol at the man, convicting him in absentia as a Deep State partisan. I’m not sure you can un-lynch someone, but I applaud the effort.

It would also be premature to elevate Trump to sainthood. The messianic fervor since the report dropped seems forced and desperate. There are too many documented sins, too many ongoing investigations, too much dust to settle. Plus, I think you have to know at least one Bible verse.

It’s rote among Republicans that Democrats oppose Trump because they can’t accept Hillary’s loss. Some intellectual honesty, please. Simply put, his authoritarian divisiveness and amorality is a threat to democracy. That’s the issue, Bubba. It’s about loving one’s country. Beyond that, if he’s despised, it’s because, by any measure of human decency, he’s despicable. I’ll spare you the list.

Democrats aren’t oblivious to Republican motives for looking the other way — tax breaks, deregulation, conservative justices, low unemployment and a steady economy. But if it’s at the cost of democracy, sorry, no sale. Economies are temporary. We’re in this for the long haul.

Everyone knows Hillary Clinton lost because she was a terrible candidate. Wounds were self-inflicted by a Democratic National Committee conspiring to make her nomination a coronation. The ill-timed e-mail bombshell from James Comey was devastating; Russia tainted the election, but Hillary and the DNC were perfectly capable of losing all by themselves.

Still, Russia’s attack on our democracy cannot go unchallenged. Instead, Trump’s tried to bury it. Ironically, the stable genius opened the Pandora’s Box of investigations himself when he fired Comey, an act that suspiciously resembles obstruction of justice.

For Americans to trust this government, the Mueller Report must be released as whole as legally possible. There can be no trust without transparency. If it’s censored to defend the absurd narrative of a victim president, you’ll know the state of democracy in America. The way to reinvigorate that democracy is at the ballot box. Democracy works. But you have to work at it.

Tony Bender writes an exclusive weekly column for Forum News Service.to