ACQUITTERS NEVER WIN (EXCEPT WHEN THEY DO)
And so Trump has been acquitted by the Senate - inasmuch as anyone can be “acquitted” in a rigged trial in which everyone knows you’re guilty but the majority of the jury doesn’t care because you're their golden boy.
I have thoughts:
1. It’s hard to be disappointed in a result that we all saw coming all the way down 5th Avenue. Mitch McConnell told you in advance how this was going to go. And while some liberals have complained about the Democrats’ overall impeachment strategy, the truth is it didn’t matter what their strategy was - the fix was in even before Mueller time.
2. It’s worth keeping a historical perspective - the outcome was ostensibly no different than any other impeachment trial. No POTUS has ever been removed from office via impeachment precisely because the trial vote inevitably splits along party lines without a two-thirds majority. (Okay, Mitt Romney is the sole exception, for all the good it did. And, you know, good for him.)
3. The other predictable outcome is Trump’s babbling, unhinged, free-verse “TOTAL EXONERATION” victory dance, which he will be performing every chance he gets from now until Doomsday. And of course, he will continue to do exactly what he’s been doing, only with the assurance that the GOP will cover for him and absolutely no one will be able to stop him. Characters like Lamar Alexander and Susan Collins who are going around saying “I think Trump has learned not to do it again” are either delusional or just trolling the libs.
You can also expect him to exact revenge on witnesses, Romney, Nancy Pelosi, Adam Schiff, James Comey, John Bolton, CNN and everyone else he hates for disloyalty. (Note: by “revenge” I’m mainly thinking of rage tweets, empty threats and firing anyone he can have fired, not arrests and assassinations, but on the other hand, who really knows at this stage?)
4. In a way it’s just as well when you think about the outcome of a conviction result - namely, President Pence, who would inherit Trump’s cult, who in turn would be so apoplectically outraged as to make the Evil Godless Crooked Demos pay by doing God knows what. And you can pretty much bet Trump himself would pour as much gasoline on that particular garbage fire as possible.
5. Which is why I stand by my current prediction that Trump is very likely going to be re-elected. After everything he’s gotten away with, there’s no reason to assume his base will abandon him now. Also, the economy’s technically great, which generally helps incumbents (even whacky ones).
6. I’ve posted about this before, but all of this raises the valid question of the utter uselessness of impeachment as a control against corruption, and if we should resign ourselves to the notion that the President will always be above the law and there’s not a damn thing we can do about it. If that’s not the country we want, we should probably give this some serious thought while there’s still a chance to do something about it.
Meanwhile, I'm just going to leave this Bloom County comic from 1981 here. Because Berke Breathed knows what time it is.
Scott free,
This is dF
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