“If you find him guilty, then you must remove him from office because right matters, and the truth matters, otherwise, we are lost.”
Those were the final words of Rep. Adam Schiff last night on day three of Donald Trump’s impeachment trial in the Senate.
He was answering the fundamental question before the Senate: “Does Trump really need to be removed from office?”
This is the question because, as Schiff pointed out, there is no doubt that Trump is guilty of the charges against him. Everyone knows that, though many keep denying they do.
The Senators sitting as jurors in this trial, Schiff added, know that they cannot trust Donald Trump to do what is right for this country, that what they can trust is that he will do what is right for Donald Trump.
Doing right for the country matters. If it doesn’t, Schiff passionately declared, then “the Constitution cannot protect us.”
At a basic level, then, this trial is about whether or not the current Senators – Republican and Democratic alike – believe the Constitution matters.
Because of the overwhelming and irrefutable evidence already presented that would be bolstered by additional documents and witnesses, anyone voting to acquit Trump will be making an unequivocal statement that the Constitution does not matter to them.
In addition, this trial is about whether or not we, the American people, sitting as jurors of Trump and our own Senators, believe the Constitution matters.
If we do, then we must hold every Senator accountable for his or her vote.
So we are witnessing more than the impeachment trial of Donald Trump. We are witnessing the trial of every current United States Senator AND the trial of every American eligible to vote in November.
This truly is history in the making that will tell future generations whether or not any of us living in this moment believed that right mattered.
And, at the end of the day, that is all that matters.
linnposts.com 
Wow. Well said.
Thanks, Peggy. Maybe some others will agree.
Jan,
Or as Ben Franklin warned: “A republic, if you can keep it.”
Cheerz!
Gene
My hope, Gene, is that most Americans want to keep it and will.
The House managers are all national heroes.
I feel peacefully expectant that something Good will break forth.
Truth always wins.
I am with you, Dixcy. It may take. while for it to happen, but it will.
Rep. Adam Schiff has bravely spoken truth to power (only because the Republicans are in the majority in the Sen ate are they in power). At the risk of being overly partisan, let me remind us all that Tom Steyer has been out there with his Need to Impeach campaign, funded on his own dime, because he was, early on, alarmed at the directions Trump has been taking the country.
David, I agree. Schiff especially has been inspiring in his wielding of the power of truth.
Seems that Adam Schmidt ruffled some republican feathers with his closing but I was impressed. He’s been good all along. I don’t believe there is a person in Congress that doesn’t believe Trump is guilty but few with the guts to stand up to him.
Wilbur, if Schiff riled a few Republican Senators, so be it. They have been riling most Americans for three years because of their loyalty to Trump rather than the Constitution. I hope he not only riled them, but made them downright angry.
Thank you, Jan, for your very insightful piece. I heard a story once, about how the expression ‘the bitter end’ came about. When a ship rides at anchor, it is held in place by the weight of the anchor chain, and the last link connecting the ship to the anchor chain is called the ‘bitter end’. If you cut this off, then you will have severed all links with the shore, and ultimately, barring help from other ships, you’ll be left totally at the mercy of the wind and the tides. My father and both grandfathers each served in the Royal Navy, and would have understood this perfectly well. Back in my student days, we were taught that in a democracy, the constitution is ‘the rules which govern the government’, and as I see it, they are any democracy’s ‘bitter end’. Cut it off, and you’ll pay a very heavy price indeed, as witness Germany in the years after 1933.
I loaned one of my DVDs to a friend of mine yesterday. It’s called “The King’s Choice”, about the dilemma King Haakon VII of Norway faced, when the Germans invaded his adopted country in 1940. In Norway, the King reigns under a written Constitution called the Constitution of Eidsvoll, promulgated in 1814 (it’s the second oldest after yours). He refused all blandishments and bribes the Germans and the traitor Vidkun Quisling put his way, stating that he had the choice of defending the constitution or of betraying it. And even though he had to go into exile, democracy survived the war to flourish anew to this very day.
The Senate in your country are faced with what amounts to such as choice as this. It remains to be seen if your Senators decide to show the courage with which King Haakon of Norway inspired his people, and that they will refuse to effectively cut off the ‘bitter end’ of the US constitution.
Thank you for once again providing helpful history to the current state of affairs here in the United States. Unfortunately, Republican Senators show no sign of having integrity or conscience so they will acquit Trump. The voters, on the other hand, will “quit” them and Trump in November (if he ends up running again). There was a time when the Republican Party was conservative ad principled. Today they are neither. They must go if the nation is to be saved, and I believe that will happen. That conviction is what keeps me going.