Silver Linings to Impeachment Woes

It is unfathomable to me that anyone who watched the horrific videos of January 6th, or was actually in the Senate or House chamber as those events unfolded, could not make the connection between that horror and the malicious lies and taunts of Donald Trump in the months leading up to it. After all, he began the lie and his dastardly plan well before the election, when he told his rally crowds, “If I lose, it is a fraud, a steal.” The constant repetition of that made it seem a certainty to his followers.

For those of us who know that words matter and that the rule of law should be followed, Trump’s acquittal in his second impeachment trial was yet another bitter pill to swallow.

Yet here we are. At age 74, Trump’s rosy life of doing whatever he wants without consequence continues.

But for the many of us who are appalled by this turn of events, there is a silver lining. Many, in fact. Here are my dozen takeaways:

1. The Republican party is over. The few moderates who voted to impeach or who finally spoke up, but much too late, will never win over the right wingnuts who still worship Trump. And without them, they will never be elected to national office. Those people want chaos. They think the status quo Republicans and Democrats are all the same and they don’t like any of them. When the election comes, they are not going to hold their noses, as Democrats often do, and vote for the lesser evil. They will sit it out. And so, Nikki Haley and Ben Sasse and a few others will never become President.

On the other hand, what the appeaser Republicans fail to understand is that the right wingnuts will not vote for them either. They love Donald Trump. They are not going to vote for a lifelong politician who went along with Trump. That’s not how cults work. It is Trump or no one to them. Ted Cruz is not loved. Marco Rubio is not loved. They will never become President. They might support a newbie like Josh Hawley or Marjorie Taylor Greene, but good luck to them getting beyond the primaries.

2. The Republican party, such as it is, can never again claim to be for law and order.

3. The Republican party can never again say Blue Lives Matter.

4. The Republican party, who supported a serial adulterer and possible sexual assault criminal, and who had five children from three different wives, can never again say they are the party of family values.

5. The Republican party can never again have any credibility on any discussion of the national deficit, which was sky high even before the pandemic. Speaking of the pandemic, they have no credibility on healthcare either — the promised healthcare plan never happened and Trump showed he was woefully unprepared for a health crisis.

6. The only demographic the Republican Party can count on is the billionaire class. It’s a pretty small group, voting-wise. Voting is the one thing the billionaires have no power over (I think).

7. With Trump out of office and the impeachment trial over, there are still federal charges that can be brought against him, and there are several cases coming up in the states of New York and Georgia, and possibly Florida. Some of these cases have very serious consequences and a conviction on any of them would render Trump useless for any future run.

8. Trump’s businesses will fail and no bank wants to lend him money for any future business such as a media empire. In fact, Deutsche Bank is now (after 15 years) wanting its money back, to the tune of about half a billion dollars. Trump has no future.

9. Trump has proven himself to be a horrible father. By involving his children in his scam presidency, he has ruined them for any future in business or politics. Bad news for them; good news for the country.

10. All of those who loyally worked for Trump during these years will likely never have a high-profile job again. The one exception may be Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who is running for governor of Arkansas. If she manages to win, there she will stay. But seriously, who will hire Kellyanne Conway? Kayleigh McEnany? Sean Spicer (remember him?)? Even Mike Pompeo. He will unlikely get any air time beyond FOX. They made a gamble for power and ended up with short term gains and long-term losses.

11. Of the hundreds who were arrested as part of the mob that stormed the Capitol on January 6th, as their cases unfold and bring harsh punishments (jail terms, stiff fines, and loss of their firearms for life — my God, like losing their babies!), they will realize they ruined their lives by following a fraudulent leader. And that leader can’t pardon them, won’t bail them out, won’t lift a finger to help them. At that point, maybe, just maybe, they will turn on him. That is when we will see the true cracks in the wall that has up to this point remained sturdy.

12. Trump, who demanded loyalty from all but gave it to no one, will die broke, friendless, and alone. In my mind, after a lifetime of being born with wealth and never having had to truly work a day in his life, an adulthood of sex with gorgeous women (whether they consented or not), money to spend on gold bathroom fixtures, endless rounds of golf, and the freedom to say whatever he wanted no matter how cruel and destructive, one bad year at the end isn’t enough karma for me. But I’ll take it.

And so, another impeachment acquittal isn’t the end. For Donald Trump, it’s the beginning of the end.

Where’s the popcorn?