As the Senate begins the second impeachment trial of Donald J. Trump there aren’t many candidates for the Profiles in Courage award among the Republican senators. Every member of the Senate, both Republican and Democrat, knows full well that Trump is guilty of the greatest crime ever perpetrated by an American president while in office.  All of them know without a shadow of a doubt that if Trump’s latest crime is not worthy of conviction for “high crimes and misdemeanors”, then the founding fathers wasted their time creating Article II, Section 4 of the US Constitution.

Thus far the House impeachment managers have done an excellent job of proving Donald J. Trump was responsible for the attacks on the capitol attack. On the other hand, Trump’s legal team has been doing their best impression of the gang that couldn’t shoot straight.  However, it is still considered highly unlikely that at least 17 of the 50 Republican senators will join with their Democratic colleagues in voting to convict the former president and then bar him from ever holding office again.

For the majority of Republican senators, it isn’t even a matter of putting party over country.  There are notable exceptions, especially in the Tea Party caucus, but we have been led to believe that the majority of the Republicans in Congress, including Mitch McConnell, would like to be rid of Trump forever. Trump has been seriously weakened; now is the time to make that happen. There is little doubt that if every Republican member of the Senate would vote to convict, it would go a long way in eliminating Trump’s stranglehold on their party forever.

However, for far too many Republican politicians it is a matter of subverting the best interests of their country and its people to their selfish political ambitions.  Much to their private dismay, Donald Trump has captured the loyalty of a large segment of those who will vote in future Republican primaries. Republican politicians are scared to death that if they anger Trump, in their next election cycle he will work to ensure that they will not be Republican nominees. 

Let’s not forget that what Trump attempted to do was to subvert our constitution and our democracy which depends on the tradition of the peaceful transfer of power which was first firmly established by George Washington and his successor John Adams.  Trump indoctrinated his supporters with lies, invited them to Washington on the day that Congress was to certify the results of the election, then sent them to Capitol Building to “fight like hell” and “stop the steal”.  They could not stop Congress from doing its constitutional duty by peacefully protesting. So they stormed the building, and for a few hours the mob was successful in carrying out Trump’s instructions.  

So with so much on the line, Senate Republicans can choose either to safeguard our democracy against future assaults by autocratic leaders or perhaps prolong their political careers.  When I was a boy we had a name for those who made the wrong choice in critical situations like this one.  We called them “yellow bellied cowards”.

Cajun (Rick Guilbeau)    12/12/2021