It appears after the first five days of the Senate Impeachment Trial of Individual One-2016 Popular Vote Loser-KKK Endorsed Candidate President Donald Trump that most Senate Republicans are adopting the attitude of See No Evil, Hear No Evil.
Even the moderates Democrats are hoping come to their side on calling witnesses (like Susan Collins or Lisa Murkowski,) seem more aghast when House Managers Adam Schiff or Jerry Nadler call them to account rather than the totality of the case against Mr. Trump.
These Senate Republicans are ignoring the lessons of history, mimicking scenes from literature, and ridiculing Constitutional Law in taking this Anti-Democratic and Republic approach.
Republicans Ignoring History
Watergate, in some ways, is like the Ukraine Affair. In 1972, Richard Nixon, like Donald Trump today, wanted to damage his strongest potential Democratic opponents (Ed Muskie and Hubert Humphrey) so he could run against the weaker general election candidate George McGovern. To accomplish this, Nixon and his operatives launched a dirty trick and smear campaign to discredit these candidates (including breaking into the Democratic Headquarters at the Watergate Hotel) that did just that.
Sound familiar.
Trumpists like to point out that if the Senate moves to remove the President, they will be overturning the election results of 2016.
Here is a news flash.
Every impeachment is, in essence, an attempt to undo the electoral results of the previous Presidential election.
Nixon (thanks in part to the dirty tricks and smears he and his team instituted) won a landslide in 1972.
He was forced to resign less than two years later.
Republicans like Mitch McConnell and Lindsey Graham did not seem to care about overturning the 1996 election when they pushed the impeachment of Bill Clinton. Such fecal matter saying they are overruling the rule of the people. Individual One-KKK endorsed candidate did not even win the popular vote in 2016, losing by just under three million votes to the non-Russian endorsed candidate, Hillary Clinton.
Republicans Mimick Scenes from Literature
When watching the House Impeachment hearings and now the Senate Trial, three works of literature spring to mind: Doctor Faustus, To Kill a Mockingbird, and Murder on the Orient Express.
Republicans, like Marlowe’s title character Doctor Faustus, appear to be willing to sell their souls to the devil (in this case the one of political fortune) so they can win their primaries and maybe the Presidency through another electoral college victory.
It seems they have quietly decided that Mike Pence, who lacks the bombastic charisma of the Chief Executive Demagogue, can not take them across the finish line.
Republicans, like the jurors in To Kill a Mockingbird, seem perfectly willing to ignore the facts and, in this case, (instead of sending an innocent man to jail as in the Harper Lee classic,) wrongfully acquit a President who has committed high crimes and misdemeanors.
Republicans, like the suspects in Agatha Christies Murder on the Orient Express, all seem to be in on the crime.
There is Political Prince of Darkness Mitch McConnell (remember the one who did not want to go forward with telling the public about Russian interference) who is working in consultation with the White House during the trial and vowed to acquit.
There is Devin Nunes, the ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee (and Trump hatchet man) who apparently has ties, along with his aide, to Lev Parnas.
Mike Pompeo (who showed last week he can not stand the pressure of a thorough interview by crumbling under questions from National Public Radio reporter Mary Lousie Kelly), Willam Barr, Mick Mulvaney, Mike Duffy, and John Bolton are putting loyalty to the Cult of Trump over the country by not going before Congress to testify.
Finally, there are the Republican Senators who seem perfectly willing to engage in, yes Senator Murkowski, a cover-up, by expressing a willingness to acquit without hearing from any of the people referred to above or see any documents withheld from the Administration.
Republicans Ridicule the Constitution
When has there ever been an impeachment trial that did not have witnesses?
Republican Senators will be creating a dangerous precedent if they went forward without calling any witnesses to the Senate Impeachment Trial of Donald Trump.
They would also be eroding the Checks and Balances of the American Republic if they let Donald Trump get away with totally obstructing Congress by not releasing at least one piece of paper or falsely claiming executive privilege to prevent one witness with direct knowledge to come forward and testify.
Many have already pointed out that if Mr. Trump is innocent, why is he not releasing the documents that could clear him or allowing the witnesses to speak that can exonerate him?
The easy answer is those papers do not exist and those witnesses can not lie under oath.
To those who claim that there are classified material concerns, and National Security matters, could easily be addressed by having the questions tailored to the alleged offenses.
The American People saw this could be done with the witnesses who did testify before Congress.
Unfortunately, Republicans like Arizona’s Martha McSally would rather hide under the proverb “Hear No Evil, See No Evil” and jeopardize the American Constitutional System rather than put country over party/cult.
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