Verdict

It’s Tuesday afternoon, almost evening. I was trying to finish writing something about a book that I just finished. It’s a pretty long post, and it just needs a conclusion, but I just ran flat out of words. I’ll try again tomorrow. 

Although it’s Tuesday, it’s the first day of the work week because yesterday was the Presidents’ Day holiday, which for some reason is under fire on Twitter. Apparently, there is a movement afoot to get rid of the Presidents’ Day holiday and replace it with an Election Day holiday. I am all for Election Day as a national holiday, but February cries out for a three-day weekend. Call it whatever you want, Twitter activists, just don’t take it away. 

Anyway, I needed the extra day this weekend, after an entire Saturday glued to the impeachment trial. Every TV in the house was on and tuned to MSNBC, and I watched on and off all day, from multiple different rooms in the house. When the defense wrapped up its ridiculous closing argument and my own Congressman, Rep. Jamie Raskin, gave the closing remarks and the thing went to a vote, we all sat still in front of the TV to await the verdict; even my younger son, who is completely uninterested in politics. 

I was cynical about the vote, and sure that I knew what the outcome would be. Still, I have to admit that when Senator Burr and then Senator Cassidy voted “guilty,” I allowed myself a brief moment of optimism. I thought that it might--just might--be possible that 17 Senators would vote to convict. But I knew what was going to happen. When it did, I was disappointed but not surprised. 

And then Schumer spoke, and I barely listened. And then McConnell spoke, and holy shit. It’s been three days now, so the initial shock has worn off. But it really was a shock. I was genuinely gaping-mouth shocked as I watched and listened live to Mitch McConnell finally, after four years, telling the truth about Donald Trump. 

Back to Twitter (from which I think I need a break). The political commentators, professional and amateur, whom I follow on Twitter are divided on the seven Republican guilty votes. One camp says that it’s too little, too late (true) and that most of the seven are either retiring or safe from primary challenges, for now. The other camp concedes the too little, too late point but argues that we should give them credit for doing the right thing, no matter what calculations might have informed their decisions. I’m in that camp. I don’t want to make the perfect the enemy of the good, and if we can get seven Republicans to do a good thing when it counts, then I will take it. And now, of course, all seven are under attack from their state party organizations and the pro-Trump media. There’s that terrible “cancel culture,” at it again. 

*****

Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday. I usually give something up for Lent; and that thing is usually sweets. And I’ll probably do that. But I think I need to walk away from politics again, at least for a few weeks. Maybe I’ll alternate days; a day with no media consumption, and then a day with no sugar. And forty days with no Trump.