As we go about our daily lives we are required to make a series of choices, many of which are trivial in nature with little long-term consequences, while the more difficult ones, such as career pursuits, family decisions and retirement planning, to name a few, require serious thought. And then, there are the decisions which will determine the legacy of the life we have chosen to live.
Today, the Senate in the USA will vote whether or not to impeach the current US President Donald Trump on the charges of abuse of power and obstructing congress. The one hundred members of the Senate, two from each state, are represented by 53 Republicans and 47 Democrats. All the Democrats and twenty Republicans will have to vote in favour of the charges for Trump’s removal from the Oval Office. Despite the mounting evidence against Trump, it appears to all and sundry that the Republicans will choose to vote along party lines to dismiss the charges.
Whatever reasons the Republican Senators provide as their excuse for not voting in favour the impeachment, they will have to live with. Whether they are hiding behind the rhetoric of Trump’s high powered legal team’s arguments that the House Democrats undertook a “partisan” and “political” investigation or voting out of fear of Trump, they should bear in mind that they are supporting a man whose loyalty does not extend beyond himself.
As the war of words waged, the Democrats have likened Trump’s behaviour to that of Richard Nixon who resigned in office rather than be impeached. Adam Schiff, House Intelligence Committee Chair observed, “Donald Trump has betrayed his oath to defend the constitution.” Trump, not to be outdone, has persisted in his skittish conduct of tweeting insults and accusing the Democrats of a “witch hunt.”
The votes cast by those Republican Senators will be an important part of their legacies. They will have chosen to keep Trump in office, despite the fact that he is quite clearly unsuitable for Public Office. Not only will they have kept him in office but they will have also provided him with the licence to run for a second term, having failed “to do the right thing” (to borrow the title of the Spike Lee film).
Once the hearing is done, Trump who has said that the constitution “allows me to do whatever I want” will continue to push the boundaries of his power. Will he return any favours to the Republican Senators? Only time can answer that question, but on his past performance, it is unlikely that he will even remember who they are come the November elections, when the voters will have the choice to replace Trump as president.
The collective choice of fifty-three Republican Senators will one day be accountable for the subsequent actions stemming from the failure to impeach President Donald Trump in February, 2020.
