Impeachment of Trump will only further enrage his base- with dire consequences

Two weeks ago, January 9th, I posted the following essay: 

Impeachment of an ex-president is legislative malpractice 

The Democratic party has embarked on something never done before, approving articles of impeachment against a president who cannot be removed from office. It would be appropriate to vote on a censure, which would be a statement of condemnation of this president for his encouragement of the invasion of the Capitol by his acolytes. This may have gotten not only unanimous Democratic support, but probably a good chunk from Republicans, depending on the exact wording. Rather, the Democrat leaders of both houses of Congress are rallying almost all of their members into not only voting for this, but treating it like a moral imperative designed to put the final nail in the figurative coffin of a reprehensible individual.  

The legacy of this individual doesn't require an impeachment trial, as it already took place on November third, with a decision made not by elected officials, but by the citizens of this country. Trump's attempt to convince us that his election was rigged, based on a convoluted fantasy that ignores all rational evidence, has failed. 

 At noon, January 20th, President Trump will become citizen Trump, with all of the vast authority of office gone, along with its immunities. There is another aspect of Democrats attempting to use the impeachment process to ensure that this individual shall never be President again. This would be a travesty, an affront against Democracy itself. This impeachment conviction with the clause of his never being allowed to hold government office again would have one effect, that the body politic, the citizens of this country, would be denied the right to nominate and elect Donald J. Trump to the Presidency. 

The next three years could find Trump excoriated further, or it's possible that he would be more appreciated in comparison with the administration that replaces him. This decision by the public is the essence of a democracy that should never be foreclosed.

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January 30th

Today there is a different argument that incorporates the previous one. Mainly, Trump is no longer President who controlled the levers of power in this country, which included the military. His time was running out then but it could not be known whether out of desperation he would attempt to marshal the outrage of his acolytes to take up arms against the enemies of "Trump's USA". 

He had candidly discussed his following being armed and willing to defend his America against their common enemies. He had boldly encouraged such actions, calling for insurrection against the Governor of Michigan and others, leading to her almost being kidnapped and executed.  He did the calculation that while he had full support of maybe only 40% of the public, they owned armor piercing machine guns, with the will to use them.

Now the persistence among Democrats to impeach and remove citizen Trump takes on a surreal absurdity, especially since the Chief Justice who is charged with residing over presidential impeachments has refused to do so. This is  affirmation that removal from office is only to prevent imminent damage by the commander in chief of the military, certainly not to stigmatize one with no more authority than any other citizen.

I checked whether the Democratic party may have started to come to its senses before I posted this, and they seem to be doing so: From this article in the  Washington Post. Jan. 27, 2021 at 12:05 p.m. PST 

The prospect of likely acquittal for Donald Trump at his Senate trial has some Democrats contemplating an off-ramp that would condemn the former president but stop short of impeachment and a ban from future office.

 Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia said Wednesday that he has been exploring drafting a bipartisan censure of Trump that would short-circuit a potentially lengthy trial that could impede progress on other Democratic priorities. “It could be an alternative,” he told reporters, saying he wanted the Senate to focus on responding to the coronavirus pandemic and confirming President Biden’s Cabinet. “

To do a trial knowing you’ll get 55 votes at the max seems to me to be not the right prioritization of our time.” Kaine’s focus on an alternative, which has been brewing since the House voted to impeach Trump over his role in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, came a day after the vast majority of Republican senators signaled doubts about the constitutional basis for trying an ex-president on impeachment charges.

Donald Trump is now citizen Trump.  He certainly could have arranged that farewell trip on Air Force One to leave a day earlier to fly him to a country with no extradition and to live a life of luxury without facing  any law suits, but he did not.  We rightly focus on his insensitivities, the policies and actions that we abhor. But let us not make the mistake that he was personally responsible for the death and suffering caused by the pandemic.  The challenge of making rules for fifty different nation-states was not trivial. 

Hatred, the raw encompassing drive to destroy an enemy is in the nature of our species.  "Trump, the monster" is now vulnerable.  So too was Emperor Hirohito who approved of atrocities of millions of innocent civilians. Forbearance of revenge allowed post-war Japan to be a major force in the United Nations in the ongoing quest to advance a humane enlightened world.  Indulging in the shaming of Mr. Trump, bringing him to a trial that has been deemed by the highest jurist in the land as invalid, will only perpetuate  and fuel the very divisiveness that Donald Trump advanced in his term of office. 

One does not have to have compassion for this individual, but overarching seething contempt for him is a luxury that dare not be indulged.  The hatred of those who invaded the Capitol that afternoon of January 6th defies reason.  It had nothing to do with rejecting the policies of the Democratic Party, rather it was the affirming fealty to a leader whose adulation transcends logic.  In a flash, Trump's subservient loyal Vice President who dared to flaunt his orders, was transformed into one of the hated enemy. 

This ransacking was an orgy of hatred, which we now know is continuing after he is no longer President,  Those of his party who had condemned him for his promoting the insurrection are now genuflecting to their leader,  begging to be forgiven for their brief loss of deference

Trumps depredations should not be construed to mean that his successor, Joe Biden, is the personification of all that is wise and decent.  The Biden administration should be subjected to the same objective criticism of his predecessor which at the least should define the "reality based party" as not enshrining a supernatural god.  The challenge of transition to a world where artificial intelligence in a flash replaces eons of the evolution of human cognition will require adjustments that have no precedent. 

This will take the combined effort of all of humanity, with no indulgence in revenge against any single individual.  

 Law Review article history on centrality of  Chief Justice participation 

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This was only an introduction, one person's thoughts.  It will only have value if others share their views by commenting.