Of course, we all expected it. There was no chance that a Republican-controlled Senate, and a Republican Party controlled by Trump and #MoscowMitch, would do anything other than acquit Donald Trump. It was as inevitable as Tuesday following Monday. In fact, I rather wonder why the Democrats even bothered with the process, knowing the outcome (as we all did) in advance.
Though, there were a couple of happy surprises. I was quite amazed and impressed by Mitt Romney. It took great courage to do what he did—particularly knowing that it may spell the end of his career, and that for the rest of his life he will be pursued by Trump’s fury, and, worse, threatened by the actions of Trump’s more unstable deplorables.
So, was it wholly useless? Was it a waste of time and money? Well, I’ll be honest with you, I’m not sure. I sometimes fear that those who advised against impeachment proceedings were quite correct, and that this whole incident will do nothing but fire up the Right.
Yet, I do retain some hope. Let’s face it, the Democrats looked really good in this exercise. They seemed controlled, intelligence, and wise. Nancy Pelosi, both before and during the impeachment, not to mention at the State of the Union Address, appeared a genuine heroine. And Adam B. Schiff emerged from the affair as America’s reigning political rock star.
The Republicans? Not so much. The refusal to have witnesses looked like what it was, an admission of guilt. McConnell looked like a smirking bastard. And Trump himself? Like a tyrant.
It may be…it just may be…that all these things will remain in the mind’s eye of the American voter. There is a possibility, small but real, that in Trump’s victory there will be a defeat…a serious, dangerous, and telling reversal of fortune.
I may be completely wrong in that, but, let us hope that I am not. If only for this one time.
And hope that in a year, we’ll look back on this moment in history as The Moment…
That is, as Pyrrhic Victory that brought him down…even if, particularly if, he never even noticed that his army was gone…and that he stood alone and vulnerable…
There…at the end of all his hopes and dreams.
And the beginning of ours.
mjt
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Michael Jay Tucker is a writer and journalist who has published material on topics ranging from the Jazz Age to computers. (Among his small claims to fame is that he interviewed Steve Jobs just after that talented if complicated man got kicked out of Apple, and just before the company’s Board came begging him to come back.)
Tucker’s most recent book is Padre: To The Island, a meditation on life and death based on the passing of his own parents.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
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