Though it was hard to tell based on the response of some, it is good news that our president did not conspire or coordinate with Russia to influence the 2016 election.

We repeat: that is a good thing. But some (both Democrats and Republicans) only wanted evidence to the contrary, and spent months claiming the evidence existed. They held out hope for impeachment.

Attorney General William Barr, in a summary of Robert Mueller’s report, said there was no evidence of collusion, a claim that Trump has repeated since the investigation began.

That Democrats wanted so desperately for Mueller to find evidence of collusion shows just how toxic our political system is. They were rooting for a U.S. president to be found guilty of coordinating with a foreign government to sway an election.

How would that have been in the nation’s best interest? How would that have been a good thing?

That sort of finding would have only further eroded our political system. It would have brought disorder and chaos to an already dysfunctional government.

Democrats were not the only ones rooting for collusion. Many in what Trump derides as the mainstream media were as well. That’s the only conclusion based on the coverage that regularly appeared in print and TV.

Journalists had a duty to thoroughly report claims that sufficient evidence existed for collusion and claims that it did not. They seem to have latched onto one side and wrote off the other as only seeking to protect the president.

It was a failure on many levels, and one that the public won’t soon forget.

Like many Americans, we disagree with much of what Trump says and does. But we are relieved our president was not working with Russians to influence an election.