It was already evident that Republicans would not hold the president accountable. Now it is up to Democrats, and the electorate
Not all battles are fought in the belief that they will be won. Some are fought in the belief that conceding in advance would be even worse. Democrats knew Donald Trump was unlikely to be convicted by a Republican Senate when they launched impeachment proceedings; that he would erroneously claim, as he has done, “full exoneration”; and that he would use the case to fire up his base. He may feel he is indestructible, as his lie-packed State of the Union address and Thursday’s buoyant, bizarre, rambling speech about the “evil” process suggests. He looks forward to November as the first impeached president to run for re-election.
Yet a refusal to impeach him would itself have damaged the country’s constitutional protections; and a president who knew he would never face impeachment would likely be as emboldened as the one who has faced it down. The vote to acquit was not a vindication of the president’s conduct, any more than the farce of the Senate trial – in which jurors who had sworn to be impartial refused to even hear witnesses – amounted to justice in action. It was an indictment of the Republican party.
Continue reading…
Source: US Politics - theguardian.com
