For What It’s Worth II

Buffalo Springfield – Stephen Stills-  For What It’s Worth

Both Sides

I had a discussion with a friend the other day, about the trial of Donald Trump.  We were lamenting what seems to be fact.  No matter what, enough Senate Republicans have made the political calculation: protecting Donald Trump is protecting their own interests.  They will vote to acquit, and Trump will claim “victory”. 

I pride myself on being able to see “both sides” of most arguments.  I’ve searched for “principled” reasons why one would vote against punishing Donald Trump for sending the mob against the Congress on January 6^th.  Unfortunately, I’ve failed.  Other than the highly questionable Constitutional jurisdiction argument that the vast majority of scholars say is wrong, there seems to be nothing “principled” in their position.  They are only protecting their own asses from the wrath of the Trump-controlled primary voters.  It only takes thirty-four Senators to acquit Donald Trump, and while I am normally a “half-full” kind of guy, I am struggling to see any other outcome.

Watching History

Being retired, I have the luxury of watching the impeachment trial closely.  I’ve set up the day: write, workout, shovel snow, make breakfast. Then it’s sit-down and watch history in the making.  It’s like sitting in the gallery at the Andrew Johnson impeachment, or with a group of high school seniors watching the Bill Clinton trial (I did that). I followed this same schedule just last year.  

Someday, years from now, in some classroom (digital or real) a teacher will try to explain this.  The teacher will “teach” how a President refused to accept defeat, convinced almost half of Americans that the election was a fraud, then ginned up a mob to stop the certification of votes.  How literal battles were fought on the steps of the Capitol of the United States, hand to hand combat, flags flying, lives lost, to protect the representatives of our Nation.   There will be the heroes in the story, the Policemen who struggled to hold back the insurrectionists. 

Lessons Learned

And there will be lessons to learn.  The teacher will cite this as another example of how a demagogue can temporarily derange part of a nation, Trump on the list with Hitler and the rest.  And that educator will have to explain how the American “exceptionalism” belief that our leaders will always “rise to the occasion”, how the Presidency “makes the person”, failed.    The words “profiles in courage” will be used, and the teacher will be left to explain why that wasn’t enough.

And because that future is a “multi-media” world, students will actually see what we are seeing now.  There will be the videos of the insurrectionists searching the building for Vice President Pence and Speaker Pelosi.  They will see Senators running from the mob, and police officers crushed in the doors.  And likely, they will hear some of the words of Congressman Jamie Raskin emotionally telling his experience:  the death of his child, the call of duty in the Congress, and the fear of losing more of his family in the uproar.

It will be as if we could watch the trial and execution of John Brown, or be there as the Ku Klux Klan rode to keep the freedmen from voting.  It will be in color on their monitors.

What Was Learned?

And at the end of the lesson, a good teacher will ask the open-ended question – what was learned?  Those future students will hopefully have a better answer than we have today.

We hear it from Lindsey Graham and Jim Jordan.  They are sure there are not enough votes to convict, so why are “those Democrats” forcing the Nation through this.  And the answer lies in that future classroom.  There may be criminal trials of insurrectionists, and maybe even of citizen Trump himself.  Those trials will never put the national spotlight on this tragedy better than this impeachment trial does.  The Senate is writing history.  And while it would make a better historic point if that trial resulted in conviction, a more fitting outcome; just putting the truth “on the books” for future reference is important.  

Those students will learn that our Republic depends on the “honor” of our leaders.  And they will also learn that sometimes, that “honor” just isn’t enough.

And, for what it’s worth, maybe they will do better.