The precedent this impeachment vote sets (57-43) turns my stomach.
It doesn’t matter that the 2019-2020 Senate impeachment trial was the first time a member of his own party voted to convict a president. And that this second trial, in 2021, had seven Republican senators honoring their oath, setting yet another record.
ONLY 1-in-12 Americans support Trump enough to join a party should he start one.
THINK ABOUT THAT.
Not only is this a travesty of justice on the merits, it is a travesty of impartiality: three “impartial” jurors advised the defense. This isn’t impartiality; this is corruption.
It’s a travesty of majority rule. A minority trumped the majority of Americans (who, in polls, supported conviction).
Context on the Republicans who voted to convict. It’s easier to take an ethical stand in most of these circumstances:
- Burr (NC, retiring)
- Cassidy (LA, term thru 2026)
- Collins (ME, term thru 2026)
- Murkowski (AK, term thru 2022)
- Romney (UT, term thru 2026, voted to convict the first time)
- Sasse (NE, term thru 2026)
- Toomey (PA, retiring)
ONLY 1-in-4 Americans identify as Republican.
THINK ABOUT THAT.
Yet 43 GOP Senators – more than 2-in-5 – voted to acquit.
Facts were not in dispute.
Trump began sowing the seeds of the Big Lie in early 2020. Well, actually he did it in 2016, demonstrating a pattern of behavior.
The harm to democracy is not that Trump lied. It’s that his party did not rein him in.
Instead, they repeated, amplified and stoked those lies.
George Orwell wrote 1984 in 1949. In 2017, his son said:
‘1984’ was his take on what could possibly happen — not necessarily will happen — but, as it turned out, it was really quite prescient.
Also in 2017, Xavier Marquez wrote in The Washington Post that “lies can cement the loyalty of subordinates.” It’s one of three reasons that “authoritarian societies and leaders lie,” he argued.
In the case of Trump and 06 January 2021, it’s clear that Trump’s lies cemented a rabid loyalty. ProPublica interviewed Capitol policemen:
One officer in the middle of the scrum, a combat veteran, thought the rioters were so vicious, so relentless, that they seemed fueled by methamphetamine… A pepper ball tore through the air over his shoulder and exploded against the jaw of a man in front of him. The round, filled with chemical irritant, ripped the rioter’s face open. His teeth were now visible through a hole in his cheek. Blood poured out, puddling on the pavement surrounding the building. But the man kept coming.
[…]
As the day drew nearer, the chatter became more tense. Twitter and Facebook were abuzz with hotel rooms filling up, and Trump supporters were pouring into Washington, announcing their plans to initiate a “civil war” or “revolution.” On a well-trafficked pro-Trump forum, one of the most popular posts from Jan. 5 said Congress “has a choice to make tomorrow”: certify Trump’s victory, or “get lynched by patriots.”
A reminder: the election was secure.
The BIG LIE was as premeditated as insurgents bringing frozen cans of food with them to pelt Capitol police.
Writing in The NY Times on 09 January 2021 Yale historian Timothy Snyder noted:
Post-truth is pre-fascism, and Trump has been our post-truth president. When we give up on truth, we concede power to those with the wealth and charisma to create spectacle in its place…
Like historical fascist leaders, Trump has presented himself as the single source of truth. His use of the term “fake news” echoed the Nazi smear Lügenpresse (“lying press”); like the Nazis, he referred to reporters as “enemies of the people.”
[…]
The claim that Trump was denied a win by fraud is a big lie not just because it mauls logic, misdescribes the present and demands belief in a conspiracy. It is a big lie, fundamentally, because it reverses the moral field of American politics and the basic structure of American history.
Still wondering about how close we are to 1860?
Wonder no more.
The Confederate states lost the battle but they are sure as hell winning the war.
Known for gnawing at complex questions like a terrier with a bone. Digital evangelist, writer, teacher. Transplanted Southerner; teach newbies to ride motorcycles. @kegill (Twitter and Mastodon.social); wiredpen.com