Trump's coming second acquittal

Forty-five Republican senators (including Mitch McConnell) voted against tabling a legally and historically dubious resolution declaring a former president's impeachment unconstitutional. It's now clear that the brief moment of sanity many Republicans had in the wake of the Trump-inspired insurrection of January 6 has passed.

The rank-and-file of what is beyond any question a staunchly authoritarian and xenophobic Republican Party is unwilling to brook any perceived disloyalty to the unbalanced demagogue we voted out of the White House on November 3, and so elected Republican officials have reverted to toady mode.

The coalition of the crazy, the ignorant, and the disingenuous that is the Trump Republican Party is closing ranks around its discredited leader. No power on earth will shake its commitment to fantasy and moral cowardice. I can see no way that the worst president in American history and the only one to lead an insurrection against the Constitution and the rule of law will be convicted and disqualified from holding Federal office in the future.

There has been talk of censuring Trump rather than impeaching him. That might be a punishment of sorts for a man with even a smidgin of honor. To a narcissist like Donald Trump, it would be a joke. The whole idea of impeachment is to remove the legal possibility that Trump's toxic presence might further poison the body politic through an attempt to recapture the White House in 2024.  Impeachment would offer the option of disqualifying Trump from holding public office again; censure would not. And censure would require sixty votes, only seven fewer than conviction on impeachment charges, and five more than it would get.

The possibility remains of invoking the Fourteenth Amendment's provision for disqualifying a Federal officer who violates his oath of office by participating in an insurrection from holding office again. That might arguably be seen as the most straightforward and most economical path to dealing with the further corrupting and distorting presence of Donald Trump in our political life. It would require only a simple majority in both Houses, and the Democrats control both. Kamala Harris might not even be needed to break a Senate tie; five Republican senators- the same five that voted to table Rand Paul's resolution declaring the second Trump impeachment unconstitutional- might well support such a step. But unfortunately, the process for invoking the Fourteenth Amendment seems murky and complicated, and most experts believe that somehow the courts would have to be involved to legally establish the obvious point that Trump's behavior on January 6 fits the constitutional requirements. While no court with an ounce of integrity could find otherwise, the process would be messy and apt to be lengthy; a question arises about what point continuing to allow the man to dominate our national life even to bring him to justice becomes counterproductive.

A conviction for a felony- a distinct possibility for the leader of the most corrupt administration in American history- seems the only route by which Trump can be kept from running for president again, and I doubt that the Biden Administration will pursue his indictment on Federal charges. Of course, U.S. Attorney Cy Vance is actively investigating Trump, and it may not be practical to stop an indictment he manages to obtain from going forward. There is also the possibility of indictment and conviction on state felony charges. But short of that, the Fourteenth Amendment seems the only way to go.

Failing one of these solutions, the truth will continue to be irrelevant in American politics for at least another four years. The mentally ill conspiracy theorist who was elected president through a geographic fluke in 2016 will continue to rave and rant while an entire major political party applauds.  The deranged shadow of our first and only sociopathic President will fall across the political landscape indefinitely. He will continue to encourage racial, ethnic, and religious bigotry and spawn insane fantasies about those he doesn't like and anybody with the temerity to criticize him. He will intentionally set American against American and lead a wanton rebellion against truth and common sense that has already shown itself capable of violent insurrection.

And the pack of lickspittles and cowards who comprise the overwhelming majority of elected Republican officials will continue to cower in terror of their party's increasingly deranged rank-and-file. What's more, even if Trump is forced into irrelevance as a potential candidate, the Republican rank-and-file has shown its real face. No more pretending that they are conservatives who revere the Constitution and respect the rule of law. The cat is now out of the bag; the responsible and respectable Reagan/Bush/McCain/Romney wing of the party has no chance of coaxing it back inside. 

The Republican Party of bygone years is dead. The party that bears that name is nothing more or less than the reborn Know-Nothings. That isn't going to change. And while it remains a significant force in American life, it's hard to see Donald Trump being held accountable for attempting to prevent Congress from certifying the result of the Electoral College vote by provoking an armed assault on the Capitol itself.

Quite a pickle, the craziness of the Republican rank-and-file and the gutlessness of the Republicans in the Senate have put us in.