Impeaching Trump (again) was easy compared to defeating Trumpism

The political landscape in the Senate, where the case against Trump will be tried, is different. Senators represent states, and state boundaries are not subject to redistricting, so they will be noticing that the president's approval rating among all voters in that Politico poll has dropped to 34%. They will have noticed that their Republican colleagues from Georgia both lost their bids for reelection before the mob assault on the Capitol. Twenty Republican senators are up for reelection in 2022 compared to only 14 Democrats. The man leading the GOP effort, Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, newly selected as head of the Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee, may face special challenges in Pennsylvania seeing as he voted to disenfranchise the voters of the commonwealth last week.

Soon-to-be Sen. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has signaled that he thinks the president's actions might have been impeachable. That has not stopped him from kicking the trial can down the road until after Sen. Chuck Schumer becomes the majority leader as soon as Georgia certifies its elections. McConnell evidently recognizes that the GOP must shed Trump, and the president's outrageous behavior in inciting the mob is the opportunity to do that.

Perhaps.

Trumpism will be harder to overcome than Trump. A significant proportion of our fellow citizens have been trained to believe nonsense on stilts. When confronted with evidence or argument that challenges them, they shout "Fake news!" While walking my dog, I asked a neighbor about U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney's decision to support impeachment. "She is a globalist!" was the reply.

Still, when Trump leaves the stage, I wonder if the movement will lose steam. There have always been and will always be conspiracy theorists, racists, anti-Semites, Second Amendment fanatics and the like. They each adhere to their own fantastic theories and inability to properly assign values to issues. Each will always pose an episodic danger. What made last week so frightening was that these disparate groups had come together for a common cause, to defend the false claims of the man who had defended them.

The House was right to impeach Trump on the merits and before history. There is no doubt he incited the mob. This week, on Fox News, they emphasize the one line in his Jan. 6 speech that was not incendiary — "I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard" — ignoring the fact that the whole speech, the whole last two months, have been one long incitement to violence.

Let me repeat what I wrote that first night after the attack: "If half of what the president alleged was true, those who stormed the Capitol were right to do so. If there really was such widespread election fraud, they were justified in attempting to stop the certification of a stolen election. In a democracy, nothing, nothing is more treasonous than undermining an election." Stealing an election is a lot worse than a tax on tea!

But — there is always a but — those who care about the future of the republic need to be politically adept, not just morally right. The danger of impeachment was always that a not guilty verdict in the Senate would become an exoneration in the minds of millions, proof that this was all a witch hunt by the Democrats, evidence that Trump was correct when he claimed he was the most persecuted president in history. Whatever anyone's theories about the sources of Trump's popularity, whatever one's ideas about what a Democratic administration should accomplish, the first task of all who care about maintaining our democracy is to make sure Trumpism becomes a sad and singular episode in our history. We cannot risk a repeat.

As Jesus said, "Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves."