Well, it’s done. Donald Trump has been impeached, and, surprisingly, it feels good, in fact, very good.
I didn’t expect to feel anything, but the day after a majority of the House of Representatives, the “people’s house,” told Trump in no uncertain terms that they know what kind of man he is has a kind of satisfaction that always accompanies someone getting what they deserve.
Trump deserved to be impeached, and he now deserves to be convicted and removed from office.
A disgrace to the office he holds is the understatement of the year when it comes to Trump.
He just paid a two million dollar fine for fraudulently diverting contributions his charity collected for children suffering from cancer for his own personal use.
Think about it. What kind of low-life person raises money for kids with cancer and then steals the donations?
Well, I’ll tell you what kind, the Donald J. Trump kind.
He should be escorted out of the White House in handcuffs for doing such a thing, but at least it reminds all of us of what kind of man he is.
The kind of man you know is lying when he denies the impeachment charges against him.
A man who will steal money from sick children will and does do anything.
That is why the Republican defense that Trump cared about corruption in Ukraine is not only absurd, but an insult to the intelligence of the American people.
I don’t know which is worse – Trump’s abuse of power, obstruction of Congress, and overall moral unfitness for office, or the Republican defense of him.
But I do know what to do about both, and that is to remove them from office, Trump by impeachment and conviction and a resounding defeat of Republicans in 2020.
I know that none of what I am writing will make a difference to Forever Trumpers or Republicans in Congress.
I used to tell my students to remember that you cannot take out of a person’s mind with reason what reason didn’t put into it in the first place.
Trump Republicans are a showcase for the truth of that principle.
As an aside, evangelical Christians are as well, having in their minds religious beliefs that reason didn’t put there and cannot take out.
So what story historians will write about the coming days will be determined in large part by those of us who believe in reason.
This is a historic moment in American life, to be sure, but I for one don’t believe it is a sad moment at all. It is, instead, a grand moment as the nation has now begun to fight back against Trump and Trumpism.
I said a few weeks ago that Trump’s impeachment would put us on trial as much as him. Yesterday showed we’re doing pretty well so far, but we’ve only just begun to fight.
As we do, let us be encouraged by the prospect that we are going to win. Sometimes so much mass media can make us feel as if Trump is winning, but he is not, nor will he or the Republicans following behind him.
This country needs, but also wants leaders different from and better than Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell and those like them.
We may not win the Senate vote, but we have already won the day because everyone knows who Republicans have become under Trump.
They cannot and will not regain the integrity and self-respect they have lost.
All we need to do is to keep ours, and the future will be one we will shape, not them.
Today is the day after Donald Trump was impeached, and it is a very good day.
