Impeachment Trial Reaction...

all the feels...

Feb 13, 2021

They are on record—the 43 U.S.Senators who voted to acquit will have this vote as a part of their obituary going forward.

Historians will shame them. And it will be the scholars who shape the legacy of these officeholders, not Fox News or Newsmax hosts.

January 6, 2021, the day of an attempted insurrection at the United States Capitol will be remembered forever.

I feel as if my family were assaulted at gunpoint for five hours, and my home vandalized. And then watched the criminal get off on a technicality at trial, free to terrorize again.

That's what happened today.

We watched every minute of the insurrection unfold live on TV January 6 and every minute of this impeachment trial. Although the clear majority voted to convict, a 2/3 majority was required. They fell ten votes short.

We knew the outcome would fall on party lines, yet seven Republicans chose to vote to convict. If a simple majority had been the standard, the outcome would have been otherwise.

Early in Trump’s campaign, he boasted he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and not lose votes. It turns out he was right. Trump could shoot somebody on Pennsylvania Avenue and get away with it. You know he feels he won and this was just another partisan witch hunt. He does not know how to take responsibility.

I'm heartsick, even though we knew the outcome was inevitable.

There are a lot of commentators far smarter than I who will better parse the trial and results.

But I keep thinking about a young Uber driver I talked to four and a half years ago as Trump’s campaign was ramping up. He was a second-generation Mexican-American who teaches in an elementary school on Chicago's south side. A tough job. He was driving Uber to supplement his income.

Racist rhetoric was a big draw for the Trump candidacy. I asked if the political discourse had impacted him personally.

Well, he said, someone at a concert he and his wife attended the weekend before in Milwaukee poured beer on them and said, 'Go back to Mexico.'

Nothing like that had happened to him before.

So, that's what's at stake.

The acquittal today means Trump got the green light to run again. He got the green light to hold rallies, sell T-shirts and hats to his followers. He thrives on the attention. He's not going away.

I'll bet money he'll say he won the election by a landslide. He has no history of taking any responsibility for losing anything. The Big Lie(s) will happen again and again and again and again.

And people will believe them.

That is what those 43 Senators voted for.

I live in two states, Iowa and Florida, so all four of my Senators voted 'not guilty.' They do not represent me. They did not vote to ‘drain the swamp’ or any other high-minded campaign slogans they’ve put on brochures.

They did, however, unwittingly vote to further fracture the GOP, in my view.

Life-long Republicans are leaving the party in droves. I know many. This will speed up the demise of ‘our fathers’ Republican Party’ and grow the Q faction, now emboldened.

The good news?

Rep. Joe Neguse of Colorado, Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland and Rep. Ted Lieu of California

We witnessed tremendous bench strength among the House impeachment managers. There's a future speaker, president, senator, cabinet member in those ranks. They shone in the spotlight.

Young people who watched this proceeding will be inspired by a diverse and brilliant team. Let's hope they get involved in democracy now they have experienced how fragile it is.