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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