Reflections on a very bad day one year later

and a missed opportunity for the GOP

What was the downside to convicting Trump in his Second Impeachment Trial?

Nothing.

A conviction would have ended the Trump era completely, made Trump, not especially the best friend of GOP incumbents, and Trumpism meaningless, and could have been precluded Trump from running for political office. A Donald Trump, who could not run for office or raise money, would have rendered him an “unperson”.

For the Democrats an easy “yes”, for the Republicans it was a whiff at a fat softball.

The Tea Party fcation of the GOP, made up originally of simply disaffected and disillusioned voters and then expanded into white supremacists, QAnon crazies, and the alt-Right fringe under the leadership of Boehner, Ryan, McCarthy, et al. in the House, would have been stunted. For a nihilist like Mitch McConnell in the Senate, it would have meant respite from right-wing nuts looking to vote on stuff — who needs deluded idealism when all you care about is power.

The evangelicals could have returned to being churches with political objectives instead of political operations with office hours Sundays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

And the GOP could have focused on beating Biden in 2024 instead of defending the Big Lie, playing Stepin Fetchit¹ to every Trump statement, and stopped its ridiculous January 6th narrative.

The last one is particularly worrisome, not because most elected Republicans stood silent on January 6th but because they did not. From that very bad day until the Democrats announced their intention to impeach Trump for his conduct, the GOP aligned itself with normalcy and good politics.

Trump was attacked and vilified by everyyone. The violence was treated with the contempt it deserved. And for a moment, idealists, pragmatists, and realists were on the same page.

Take a look. It was not pretty. And the source for this is very Republican and damn conservative.

The idealists on the Right decided the attack would undermine conservatism or Trumpism. Justifying an authoritarian quest to undermine democracy made sense for Trumpists, but not for conservatives. Since when were conservatives in favor of the violent overthrow of government - the rule of law means something, no? Trumpian ideals prevailed over conservative principles.

The pragmatists within the GOP deciding to defend Trump made a little more sense, but to what end? Trump had lost an election and the post-Trump era was at hand potentially. Trump had consumed the GOP and moderate to conservative Republicans, who had little connection to the Trumpists within their districts and states, saw an easy issue to align behind. Deciding to buy into the “January 6th was just typical tourist day” narrative made sense. Why awaken potential primary opponents with righteous indignation about what January 6th actually was?

It would be nice to think there were realists within the GOP. The 10 House votes had one maybe two realists, but the 7 GOP guilty votes in the Senate was pure idealism - a stand on conservative principles. Impeachment trials produce verdicts, political ones to be sure, but verdicts nevertheless. Realism and pragmatism don’t stand a chance there.

For what it’s worth, I watched, I threw up, and I cried. And then I got angry.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stepin_Fetchit