The U.S. Constitution may not be a suicide pact, but the Republican Party might be.
Watching a majority of the U.S. Senate refuse to hear evidence Friday against Donald Trump — evidence that inevitably will spill out anyway — was almost as disheartening as Trump’s win on November 8, 2016. What made it less so was 2016 set the stage for it as surely as Chekhov’s gun will go off before the curtain falls. Friday’s vote should not have been any surprise.
Trump says jump. His party says, “How high?”
No one on the Republican side gets out unscathed. Especially former national security adviser John Bolton. He could have testified before the House when his testimony under oath might have had national impact. Instead, he threatened to take the House to court and held back until his book was almost ready for the printer. That details are leaking out now reinforces the right-wing talking point that he’s only interested in book sales. Anything his revelations add now are tainted by Senate Republicans’ “perfidy,” as Sen. Chuck Schumer put it.
In closing remarks this week, House impeachment manager Rep. Adam Schiff cautioned:
“The Constitution is not a suicide pact. It does not require us to surrender our common sense. Our common sense, as well as our morality, tells us what the president did was wrong. When a president sacrifices the national security interests of the country, it’s not only wrong but it’s dangerous. When a president says … he will continue to do it if left in office, it is dangerous. The framers provided a remedy, and we urge you to use it.”
But reasoning with a death cult about the implications of suicide is — I don’t know, pick your metaphor.
The final vote in the Senate is set for Wednesday. That Democrats negotiated a date after Trump’s Tuesday State of the Union Address is a kind of victory. It denies Trump the chance to crow, “I am invincible!” to a national audience. Not that the impeached, would-be monarch won’t try.
The challenge ahead for Democrats is how a Trump-fatigued electorate will respond this fall. Trump’s inauguration sparked the largest street protests in American history. Three years later, Trump is unbowed, congressional Republicans are cowed, and unindicted Trump co-conspirator Devin Nunes is suing an imaginary cow.
All week, I’ve wondered if Trump’s attempts to undermine Joe Biden’s bid for the presidency may have strengthened it. All the negative attention Trump has paid to Biden and his son reinforces the notion that Biden is Trump’s strongest potential opponent. Trump certainly thinks so. He’d rather run against Bernie Sanders. Whatever the progressive wing of the Democratic Party may want in a candidate, Biden may be what Democratic and independent voters most want in 2020: someone who can defeat Trump. And Trump himself and his impeachment defense team have been making the case all week that Joe Biden is that candidate.
Meanwhile, Trump the Petulant fumes about how unfair his avoiding culpability is.
And no matter what wrongdoing he gets away with, the 73-year-old will never stop playing the victim like a pouty 7-year-old.
● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●
For The Win, 3rd Edition is ready for download. Request a copy of my free countywide election mechanics guide at ForTheWin.us. This is what winning looks like.