The second impeachment trial of former president Donald Trump is history and it’s time to put his four years in the White House in the rear-view mirror as well.
Whether you supported Trump or thought he was the worst president in the history of our country (he wasn’t), enough is enough. A new president has taken office and to be honest this most recent impeachment trial was nothing more than political grandstanding.
Even with seven Republicans joining Democrats, it was not enough for conviction nor should it have been. People have to take responsibility for their own actions. If someone walks up to me and says “Hey you, go rob that bank” and I do it, then it is my fault.
There is much Trump can be criticized for. However, does anyone really believe he wanted the US Capitol damaged or that he wanted a police officer killed? I don’t and if you are honest with yourself then you don’t either.
The bottom line in all of this is how can you impeach a president when he is no longer the president. That question is common sense although you are hard-pressed to find much common sense among the two major political parties these days.
Democrats have what they want. President Trump was defeated in his re-election bid. If this second impeachment fiasco was a move simply to prevent him from running again in 2024, it was a dumb move.
It should be up to American voters who wins the White House. Trump has served one term as president and, as such, as the right to run again. A few weeks ago, the case could easily be made he would run again. Now, I’m not so sure.
The actions surrounding the citizen raid of the US Capitol caused a good bit of damage to President Trump’s reputation. There were plenty of conservative leaning lawmakers who did not blindly take up for him after this. Perhaps if they had not blindly followed him the previous four years then things would not have broken down to this degree.
The Trump presidency will be looked upon in 100 years as a baffling thing. It’s baffling in many ways now, but when future historians study it after we are all gone from this mortal rock, they are going to have questions about how he was ever elected to begin with.
It was certainly a campaign for the history books in 2016. Democrats were determined to make Hillary Clinton their nominee and did so by hook or crook. This opened the door for Trump. I will always believe had Hillary not been the nominee, then Trump would have never been elected.
One good thing the 2016 election did was that it closed the book on Hillary Clinton ever being president.
As interesting note in recent days showed how some conservatives are wanting to form a new political party that does not go meekly behind Donald Trump. I’m all for new political parties but what’s ironic about this move is that those behind this so-called new party will get to experience first-hand how tough it is to overcome the strict ballot access laws in this country that they helped create.
As a whole, Democrats and Republicans have failed this country so often, one has to wonder why they continue to have so much support. It doesn’t have to be that way.
Even as recent as the 2020 presidential election, there was another party whose candidate was on the ballot in all 50 states. That candidate and party barely made a blip on the radar screen.
The petty back-and-forth between those who support one side of the two-headed monster will only continue if voters let it continue. To this point, voters have shown no signs of putting a stop to it.
To quote a classic rock song, “How often times it happens, that we live our lives in chains and we never even know we have the key.”
Chris Bridges is a former sports editor for The Walton Tribune and The Covington News. You can email comments about this column to pchrisbridges@gmail.com.
