The only redeeming factor from the weeklong impeachment trial against former President Donald Trump is that it’s over.
The politics of today meant Democrats had the Sisyphean task of convincing Senate Republicans they should put country before party. To a one, no Republican has defended the former president’s role on Jan. 6 when he urged rioters to storm the U.S. Capitol. Only seven had the temerity to condemn him for his actions.
After voting to acquit the former president, House Minority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky shamelessly said:
“President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day. These criminals were carrying his banners, hanging his flag and screaming their loyalty to him. It was so obvious that only President Trump could end this. He was the only one.”
When the coast was clear, he finds a backbone.
Republicans’ secret convictions of Trump’s guilt were not enough to make them risk their political futures by standing up to him, his grip on the party is so great.
Republicans leaned on the excuse that a former president could not be convicted despite the fact that his offenses occurred while in office.
Rewind the tape, and you see their complicitness.
After the House impeached Trump on Jan. 13, then-Senate Majority Leader McConnell held the cards to begin the trial. Instead, he refused, postponing the trial until Trump was officially out of office.
Then, conveniently, Republicans said it was not possible to rule on an ex-president, despite a Senate vote where a majority, including six Republicans, determined it was. The truth is that from Day One the vast majority of Republicans had made up their minds to absolve Trump.
OUR HOPE is that the trial stirred in each of us the embers of patriotism and civility. Our senses have been dulled by five years of conspiracy theories and baseness: “Lock her up!” “Hang Mike Pence!” “Stop the Steal!”
For many, their north star has been fixed on an individual, not a philosophy.
Political scientists are worried about the rising tolerance for violence that can come along with rising polarization. In just the last four years, the percentage of Americans who say they think political violence against the other side is “at least a little bit justified” is now at 20 percent, up from 10 percent.
As a society we cannot normalize violence. We cannot remain passive to brutality.
It begins with each of us, today.
