The Senate Trial of former President Donald Trump is over.\u00a0\u00a0Some Democrats take solace in the seven Republicans who voted to convict.\u00a0\u00a0Many of the other Republicans who voted to acquit immediately condemned Trump\u2019s actions. They claimed a technical Constitutional interpretation prevented them from assigning guilt.\u00a0\u00a0And several Republicans Senators, sworn jurors in the trial, took great pleasure in flaunting their assistance to the Defense team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Trump attorneys, as poorly as their \u201cMy Cousin Vinnie\u201d defense performed, hit the nail on the head. They said\u00a0\u00a0\u201ca win is a win\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0Donald Trump, the first President to be impeached twice, remains acquitted twice as well.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There may be other venues to apportion Trump\u2019s blame for the Insurrection of January 6th<\/sup>.\u00a0\u00a0The Justice Department may look at his actions. But that\u2019s a \u201cno-win\u201d situation, playing straight into the Trump narrative of \u201cwitch-hunt\u201d and persecution. Georgia authorities are examining Trump\u2019s recorded call to the Georgia Secretary of State.\u00a0\u00a0And there\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trump\u2019s impact on our politics is not over.\u00a0\u00a0By acquitting him, the Senate has \u201ckicked that can\u201d down the road, regardless of the damning speeches delivered after.\u00a0\u00a0His influence over \u201chis voters\u201d will continue. He many no longer have the “weight” of seventy-four million votes behind him.\u00a0\u00a0After the Insurrection, and as he\u2019s out of office, it\u2019s likely that he still influences millions, but not those millions.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n The battle symbolized by Trump will continue:\u00a0\u00a0the growing authoritarianism, the racial divisions inspiring hate, and the silos of \u201cfacts\u201d that cannot be reconciled.\u00a0\u00a0And America is faced with an ultimate fact that cannot be ignored.\u00a0\u00a0In a score of years White people will no longer be in the majority.\u00a0\u00a0The growing pressure of that undeniable event influences all of our political interactions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And all of those factors will still be here, Trump or no.\u00a0\u00a0Trump 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.\u00a0\u00a0But the struggle the Senate trial symbolized is not resolved.\u00a0\u00a0America still needs to confront the forces that drove the Insurrection, and until we do, they will hang like a Damocletian sword over everything else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n America is confronted with more important crises: COVID, racial inequity, economic disparity, and climate change. Joe Biden is relentlessly moving ahead. The \u201cprogressive\u201d worry, that Biden will be too driven to compromise, is proving to be unfounded \u2013 at least so far. Sure Biden is talking to Republicans, but meanwhile, the COVID package is moving through the House of Representatives as a \u201cbudget reconciliation\u201d item. Should the Senate need to pass COVID without Republican support, they have the fifty votes plus the tie-breaker to do it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But it is time to move on.\u00a0\u00a0Trumpism will be in the background, rearing its head especially in the Republican primaries of 2022 and 2024.\u00a0\u00a0But Donald Trump’s record is that unless his name is on the ticket, he doesn\u2019t help so much in the general election.\u00a0 In 2018, and even in 2020, his name brought out voters. It helped the \u201cdown-ticket\u201d ballot, but even in 2020 it wasn\u2019t enough to help him.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Joe Biden made promises to America. One of those was to \u201creturn to normalcy\u201d, to a time when we weren\u2019t worried about the next \u201cPresidential Tweet\u201d establishing US Government policy. A time when \u201cnormal people\u201d didn\u2019t check their phone \u2013 first thing \u2013 to see what the next crisis would be. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u00a0To return to when we could have reasonable expectations for the conduct of our leaders.\u00a0\u00a0Biden has already passed one such test.\u00a0\u00a0When 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.\u00a0\u00a0A far cry from the way scandals were handled in the Trump White House.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s time to leave Donald Trump behind. That doesn\u2019t mean forget the Insurrection (and his role in it), but it\u2019s time that the future take precedence over the past. Have a \u201c9-11\u201d 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 \u2013 Joe Biden.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Trumpism Lives<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Moving On<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Return to Normalcy<\/h3>\n\n\n\n