Unless at least 17 GOP Senators vote to convict the former president for inciting the insurrection on Jan 6th, our democracy’s days will be numbered — and it will fail on their watch.
But should that surprise us, given their efforts to wrest democracy away from us in just about every other way for literally decades via gerrymandering districts, disenfranchising voters of color, and keeping people so underpaid and overworked that they have no energy at the end of the day to protest and resist their biased, unfair, debilitating policies?
I’m so disgusted by the Trump defense team and its GOP enablers it’s impossible to put it into words.
I thought we were all finally going to rally around the flag following January 6th and demand, in no uncertain terms, that lies and the damned liars who spout them often enough to get thousands of people to attack their own Capitol based on a thoroughly debunked conspiracy theory (“Fight Like Hell” to “Stop the Steal”) need to be held accountable for misleading their followers, inviting and inciting them to DC to “Stop the Steal” on the day the electoral college votes were to be certified, and standing by as they ransacked the place looking for people to lynch.
But no… several of the GOP cohort who will be voting on the matter (Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley, and others) were spouting the same Big Lie and prepared to “Stop the Steal” by protesting the certification of the electoral college votes even as the rioters broke into the building to stop the count. So, if Trump is held accountable, they know they may well be next on the chopping block. Mike Pence and Mitch McConnell knew their duties and acted properly on January 6th. Too few other GOP members did.
But there are only a handful of actual Trump defenders in the senate. There are all these other Republicans who would vote to convict Trump if the votes were held in secret, but who, not given that choice, are most likely going to vote to acquit him. They’re perhaps the most despicable of all, because they are chickenshits. They’ve been cowed by the Liar in Chief and his hordes of indoctrinated kool-aid drinkers. (The link explains the genesis of the term “kool-aid drinkers. The comparison is apt.)
But this trial isn’t even about Trump at base (as base as he is).
It is about making sure that Trump’s extra-legal tactics will never be “normalized” so that there is no precedent should future presidents behave this way again.
And some of them will, if he gets off.
Fascist liars will be emboldened.
The defense says Trump’s speech on that day wasn’t the cause of the riots. But, as one woman on the prosecution team so aptly and succinctly explained, “You didn’t win your wife on the first date.”
There were audible chuckles then, but the point struck home: they, too, had to woo their wives, invite them, incite them, and get them to commit over a period of time.
That was Trump’s MO, too. And the defense team connected the dots expertly.
Trump sold his “intended” marks the Big Lie over and over, invited them to protest on January 6th and then lit the match after all of the kindling had arrived and assembled themselves before him; Proud Boys (who he had told to stand down and stand by months before), Oath Keepers, and other armed white supremacist/white nationalist groups.
And his comrade, Rudy Guiliani, who spoke before Trump, suggested “trial by combat.” Only at the very end of Trump’s speech (which contained the word “fight” at least every few minutes for over an hour) did he mention “peacefully” protesting–long after his followers had already broken through the barricades, beaten officers, and begun their assault on the Capitol. (He was likely hedging his bets by introducing plausible deniability in one spot of a very long tirade against “The Steal”.)
And he wasn’t even among the administration officials who finally called a halt to the siege. It was Pence and several of his other deputies who called in more help to squelch the uprising. Trump was nowhere to be found until the siege was being brought under control by additional arriving Capitol defenders.
He should have been there IMMEDIATELY, COMMANDING THIS INSURRECTIONIST ARMY TO STAND DOWN. HE WAS THE ONLY COMMANDER THEY WERE WILLING TO OBEY. As soon as he did, they began to disband.
According to one account, he knew his own VP, Mike Pence’s life was in jeopardy when he tweeted “Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution.” (Past tense…chilling!!!) Again, repeating The Big Lie that the election was stolen.
Sadly, far too many of his followers still believe his Big Lie, despite ALL evidence being to the contrary. You can’t fix fanaticism; you can’t fix cultists.
I’ve never felt as close to losing the promise of this country as I feel right now.
If the Senate votes to acquit him, they will be voting to seal our doom as a democratic republic.
They may not care about that, but I do… and I know most Americans do, too.
What do we do IF they acquit?
Do WE storm the Capitol?
Perish the thought!
But we have to do something big, brave and bold to make it plain
that we’re not willing to give up America on our watch…
I was soooo looking forward to putting Trump’s pillaging of our republic in the rearview mirror. But unless the GOP steps up and does the right thing for the first time in a very, very long time, I’m afraid the battle for the soul of America will continue…
Update, after the vote to acquit:
Mitch McConnell spent eight minutes condemning Trump’s incitement of the insurrection but he elected to vote him Not Guilty on a technicality. So are we going to lose our country due to a technicality?
My god… what have we become???
The justice departments in numerous states at various levels had better go after Trump hammer and tong and jail him for the rest of his miserable lying life, or we’re in deep doodoo now. We’ve become the shithole country of the world as a result of this miscarriage of justice.
His terrorists will be emboldened by this acquittal. (The ones not yet caught and undergoing trials.)
The final vote: 57 to 43 in favor of conviction.
A majority, but not enough of one.
(They needed a super majority– ten more — to get a conviction.)
(Had it been a secret ballot vote, they probably would have the votes they needed to convict.)
Great thanks to the seven patriotic GOP members who did the right thing and voted to convict Trump:
Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), Susan Collins (Maine),
Mitt Romney (Utah), Pat Toomey (Pennsylvania),
Ben Sasse (Nebraska), Richard Burr (North Carolina),
and Bill Cassidy (Louisiana).
