Wednesday was a rough day for most Americans. I think no matter your political stripes, we all felt a little bit of shame that day. The idea that people would rush into the Capitol during a ceremony signifying the peaceful transfer of power just seemed like a brand new low, after a year where it felt like we’d already had so many before.
It’s just hard to put into words how depressing this is. In my last blog on here, I wrote about how disheartening it was to see the immediate politicization of the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. But that pales in comparison to the images I’ve seen replayed over the last 3 days of people storming into the Capitol building, desecrating not just physical objects like a desk or a podium, but desecrating this idea that at the end of the day, the American experiment would always come out on the other side unscathed.
And let’s get one thing clear. President Trump exhorted the crowd to do this. Seth Abramson has a great thread on twitter where he goes through the entire speech the President gave right before the march to the Capitol. It explains in great detail how explicitly he was calling for more than just a peaceful march down the Capitol Mall.
And the idea that a President can call upon people to do that sort of thing is something that can’t just be brushed aside. That’s why you’ve got so many Democrats and even some Republicans calling for him to be impeached. You need to make it absolutely clear that this is unacceptable.
But there are also some Republicans now saying that we need to move forward. They say that an impeachment would just risk dividing the country further.
I feel like both arguments have some merit. Of course this is the sort of situation that can’t go unpunished. Of course President Trump shouldn’t be able to hold power again. He led an insurrection against this country. Of course people need to see that this sort of thing doesn’t come without a cost.
But I wonder what the actual results of an impeachment would be. First off, at this point, is there anyone in the country whose mind would be changed by Trump getting impeached? Is the goal of an impeachment to change hearts and minds or is it to exact vengeance upon somebody who so righteously deserves it? President Donald Trump is a terrible person. His name will go down on the scrapheap of history, and decades from now, when kids learn about him in history class, pictures of Wednesday’s riot will be listed right next to his name. I don’t know how an impeachment would do anything more to tarnish his reputation than it already has been.
If we do go through with an impeachment, I don’t think things will get better. I think they’ll get worse, because the people who have been emboldened by his bullshit will just continue to feel like they’re being marginalized. I don’t think they have a right to be. I think the victim complex should be put to a stop when you’re the ones who can waltz right in to the Capitol unharmed, months after another group of people were teargassed so the President could walk across the street and hold up a bible. You shouldn’t get to act marginalized with that kind of privilege.
But I do think this would kneecap any sort of coming together that President-Elect Biden is looking for to start his term. He wants to be a unifier. He wants to turn down the temperature. The 74 Million people (sidenote: Trump keeps saying he got 75 million votes. No. Stop that. You got 74.2 Million. That’s not how rounding works.) that voted for President Trump will feel like they’re getting doubly punished.
When considering prison reform, there’s often an idea that prisons should be correctional, not punitive. We want to reform the person that’s committed a crime, not punish them to satisfy our sense of fairness. The right thing would be for Trump to be impeached again. He deserves all the ignominy that comes with being the only President to be impeached twice. But I don’t know if it would be the most productive thing.
President Trump sure as hell deserves to be impeached. But I don’t know if doing so would do much to help the country right now.
Ed On Politics 