Cowards

 

From this day forward, let the elephant no longer be used as the emblem of the Republican Party.

Henceforth, let the GOP symbol be the chicken.

Today's acquittal of our insurrectionist former president is still more proof that the Republican is an invertebrate species that ought never, ever be trusted with power again. A president who eggs a crowd on and gets it to storm the Capitol in an attempt to prevent Congress from performing its constitutional responsibility to count the electoral votes, costing seven lives in the process and shaking the confidence not only of Americans but of the world in our democratic process cannot be convicted and disqualified from ever again holding public office. Impeachment is a dead constitutional letter. And those who voted to let him off the hook have proven beyond any doubt that they are more afraid of their fanatical constituents than they are of violating their oath to "do impartial justice."

Shame!

Donald Trump's guilt was proven beyond any doubt. Most constitutional scholars say that the Constitution permits a former president's impeachment to disqualify him from ever holding Federal office again. And the Fourteenth Amendment says explicitly that a person who has taken part in an insurrection against the Federal government should be so disqualified! The Constitution is clear. So was the duty of the Senate.

It failed, and its shame will live through the ages as school children learn how little regard they had for the Constitution and the rule of law and how cowed they are by a bully who no longer even holds office.

Of the fifty Republicans in the Senate, only seven had the courage and the integrity to do the right thing.

Trump will doubtless face criminal charges for his behavior on January 6, and probably for a great deal else. Conviction on felony charges would also bar him from running again in 2024. But today, the Senate established a precedent that presidents as such are unaccountable for anything they do, including treason. And lest the point be missed, the only reason the impeachment trial wasn't held while Donald Trump was still president is that Mitch McConnell wouldn't allow it.

One word to the former president's 43 Senate accomplices: shame. History will remember this day, and it will remember you as cowards.