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RECALIBRATION AND PERSECTIVE:
I needed a few hours away from it all to regain some perspective and readjust my thinking. I have been so close to the proceedings this week that I felt the need to completely disconnect once it ended.
Nonetheless, I still have to be honest.
I needed a few hours away from it all to regain some perspective and readjust my thinking. I have been so close to the proceedings this week that I felt the need to completely disconnect once it ended.
Nonetheless, I still have to be honest.
I am as completely unsurprised as I am extremely disgusted that there was no conviction today. I'm positive many of us are. But as @repdonnaedwards said, the democrats had no responsibility to convict Trump all by ourselves. The democrats didn't fail. The republicans did.
That does not change the reality of our situation. America and American democracy is in a far more precarious position tonight than it has ever been because of the fear and cowardice of republicans. Republican failure places us in jeopardy from now on.
That will require us to be ever more vigilant about and attentive to our government and governance.
But let's set that aside for a moment. I have to take a moment to thank and honor the democratic house manager team who went to bat for America for the past 5 days.
But let's set that aside for a moment. I have to take a moment to thank and honor the democratic house manager team who went to bat for America for the past 5 days.
Yes, there was a hiccup in tactics towards the end, but it made no substantive difference to the case because republicans were never going to change their minds. We have to accept that as true because it is a fact. They knew it and made it clear. Arguing otherwise is futile.
Therefore, the burden of the failure is not ours to carry, nor should we. We as democrats have to always resist the urge to let the perfect be the enemy of the good. And our insistence on carrying all responsibility exempts republicans from needing to assume any.
After all, we have demonstrated in the past that if we are not careful, we can be our own harshest critics and biggest enemies. And, sometime we can inflict damage on ourselves worse than any can enemy, and if we do they will let us.
That can't be right.
That can't be right.
Nevertheless, the democratic house managers put on a master class of defending the constitution and democracy, and executing an impeachment trial to almost pure perfection. Each of the managers was brilliant, skilled, astute, erudite, and adept. They made me very proud.
That clearly can not be said regarding anything about the opposing counsel. They were unskilled, ignorant, and hubristic. And, they approached the entire process with the expectation of white privilege that assumed that the weak republicans would never convict.
They were right.
They were right.
Just like the hordes of mass marauding insurrectionists and domestic terrorists never expected that the police would used deadly force against them even as the masses were killing and maiming the police, the Trump attorneys assumed the case was in the bag.
And, no matter their incompetence, unpreparedness, disrespect, and despite the wrongness of Trumps actions on that day and many days leading up to January 6, 2021, republicans with no integrity went out of their way to assist. Congressional republicans are and were accomplices.
But there is another thing that went almost unnoticed, or at least unmentioned. When the manager group stood behind Nancy Pelosi at the podium today, they were white, black, hispanic, and asian. They represented America in every sense of the word. Of that I am extremely proud.
None of that can be said on the republican side.
But what's more, what that visual also showed in that instant is that that diverse, capable and courageous version of America is what Trump and republicans fear most.
But what's more, what that visual also showed in that instant is that that diverse, capable and courageous version of America is what Trump and republicans fear most.
That's why radicalized rightwing criminals are willing to lie, cheat, steal, and kill to stay in power, and weak, fearfu,l corrupt republicans in official office are willing to stand by and let it happen - or worse - help with the reward of staying in office without earning it.
We have a lot of fights ahead because the racist, extremists, insurrectionists and domestic terrorists will never stop until they are completely defeated. And that task will never even begin until republicans themselves find the courage to fight back.
But I am confident that just like with the Ukraine Impeachment Trial, and then again this week, Democrats are more than capable of defending democracy, and I believe that we are more than willing to do whatever it takes to make that happen.
Democrats can't afford to punish or condemn ourselves, nor should we.
We have too much to do. We have a country to govern, crises to solve, and a democracy to continue to protect and defend - with or without the republicans.
We have too much to do. We have a country to govern, crises to solve, and a democracy to continue to protect and defend - with or without the republicans.
