So who is betting Republican Senators will make an honest attempt to do the right thing in deciding the fate of Donald Trump’s impeachment?
I’ll take that bet with anyone who is.
That’s because never in the history of our republic have so many Senators showed so little commitment to doing their job all at the same time.
It’s pretty stunning when you think about it, even if their show of no integrity was predictable before the trial started.
That I am disappointed in what is going to happen, though, is my own fault. Once again my expectations got the best of me.
When Mitch McConnell voted that Trump’s impeachment trial was unconstitutional because Trump was out of office when he’s the reason the trial wasn’t held while he was still in office, I should have known the jig was up.
Instead, I listened to the house managers present a solid and emotionally moving case against Trump as if enough Republicans would listen to convict Trump for betraying his oath of office, only to realize after a few of them commented on what they witnessed that my hope was foolish.
Now that I have my feet under me again I see that the audience to whom the impeachment managers are making their case is not Republican Senators.
It’s the American people.
That is what this trial is about, informing the public of just how close the invaders came on January 6 to stopping the vote to affirm the election, the realness of the threat they posed to the lives of so many, including Mike Pence and Nancy Pelosi, and how bravely Capitol police fought against the invaders literally for hours.
It is about showing us, the people, the timeline that leaves no doubt that Donald Trump laid the groundwork for the insurrection months before and days after the election, and then in his last act desperation had his people participate in the planning of it so that his speech that day was the spark the mob needed to set the situation on fire.
The trial is for us because in a democracy we the people always have the last say.
Had the Capitol attack been successful, that would have been the results. Donald Trump would have been re-installed as President, our votes would have been nullified, and American democracy would have ended.
None of what I have said is hyperbolic. On January 6 Donald Trump almost succeeded in overthrowing our government.
That so many Republicans participated in what happened is a despicable thing. No wonder Josh Hawley of Missouri is sitting in the balcony ignoring the proceedings. He is not man enough to own up to what he did to help make it all happen.
Indeed, had he not signed on to Trump’s Big Lie, it is likely that the electoral college votes would have been counted without interruption and no attack would have happened.
That is why the trial is not for him or any other Republican Senator because except for a few none of them has the integrity or character to vote based on the evidence.
The good thing is that their vote is not the final one. Ours will be in 2022 when more than 20 Republican Senate seats and every House seat is on the ballot.
That may seem like a long way off, but it will come soon enough.
When it does our votes will be the final verdict on what Donald Trump did to our country on January 6, and by our votes, we will hold those Republicans accountable who lacked the character to do what was right by our country when they had the chance.
linnposts.com 