The Trial
The Senate Trial of former President Donald Trump is over. Some Democrats take solace in the seven Republicans who voted to convict. Many of the other Republicans who voted to acquit immediately condemned Trump’s actions. They claimed a technical Constitutional interpretation prevented them from assigning guilt. And several Republicans Senators, sworn jurors in the trial, took great pleasure in flaunting their assistance to the Defense team.
The Trump attorneys, as poorly as their “My Cousin Vinnie” defense performed, hit the nail on the head. They said “a win is a win”. Donald Trump, the first President to be impeached twice, remains acquitted twice as well.
Kick the Can
There may be other venues to apportion Trump’s blame for the Insurrection of January 6th. The Justice Department may look at his actions. But that’s a “no-win” situation, playing straight into the Trump narrative of “witch-hunt” and persecution. Georgia authorities are examining Trump’s recorded call to the Georgia Secretary of State. And there’s plenty of other Courts who are likely to have Trump as a defendant. The District Attorney of Manhattan’s jurisdiction has been preparing for years.
Trump’s impact on our politics is not over. By acquitting him, the Senate has “kicked that can” down the road, regardless of the damning speeches delivered after. His influence over “his voters” will continue. He many no longer have the “weight” of seventy-four million votes behind him. After the Insurrection, and as he’s out of office, it’s likely that he still influences millions, but not those millions.
Trumpism Lives
The battle symbolized by Trump will continue: the growing authoritarianism, the racial divisions inspiring hate, and the silos of “facts” that cannot be reconciled. And America is faced with an ultimate fact that cannot be ignored. In a score of years White people will no longer be in the majority. The growing pressure of that undeniable event influences all of our political interactions.
And all of those factors will still be here, Trump or no. Trump may want to pick up the mantle of leadership again. Or he may pass it on to his children, or allows others (Hawley, Cruz, Graham) to grasp it. But the struggle the Senate trial symbolized is not resolved. America still needs to confront the forces that drove the Insurrection, and until we do, they will hang like a Damocletian sword over everything else.
Moving On
America is confronted with more important crises: COVID, racial inequity, economic disparity, and climate change. Joe Biden is relentlessly moving ahead. The “progressive” worry, that Biden will be too driven to compromise, is proving to be unfounded – at least so far. Sure Biden is talking to Republicans, but meanwhile, the COVID package is moving through the House of Representatives as a “budget reconciliation” item. Should the Senate need to pass COVID without Republican support, they have the fifty votes plus the tie-breaker to do it.
But it is time to move on. Trumpism will be in the background, rearing its head especially in the Republican primaries of 2022 and 2024. But Donald Trump’s record is that unless his name is on the ticket, he doesn’t help so much in the general election. In 2018, and even in 2020, his name brought out voters. It helped the “down-ticket” ballot, but even in 2020 it wasn’t enough to help him.
Return to Normalcy
Joe Biden made promises to America. One of those was to “return to normalcy”, to a time when we weren’t worried about the next “Presidential Tweet” establishing US Government policy. A time when “normal people” didn’t check their phone – first thing – to see what the next crisis would be.
To return to when we could have reasonable expectations for the conduct of our leaders. Biden has already passed one such test. When one of his staff ended up in a scandal, and tried to abuse his authority, the White House immediately suspended him and ultimately the staff member resigned. A far cry from the way scandals were handled in the Trump White House.
It’s time to leave Donald Trump behind. That doesn’t mean forget the Insurrection (and his role in it), but it’s time that the future take precedence over the past. Have a “9-11” style commission, let the Justice Department and the Courts do their thing, but the Nation needs to focus on our future. And the future is a man of our past – Joe Biden.
