Everyone associated with the second impeachment trial of Donald Trump was fucked
Pardon the profanity, but I think everyone associated with the second impeachment trial of Donald Trump was fucked.
The Democrats were fucked because they didn't win a conviction despite a rock-solid case, 100% of votes on their side, and a breakaway contingent on the other side. This speaks to one of the (many) ways the Democrats have the deck stacked against them: a Senate biased towards low-population states, a right-wing media echo chamber, a court system and Supreme Court replete with right-wingers, and so on. Someone smarter and less lazy than Trump The Clown could still exploit this infrastructure and this political environment and bring to power a New Fascism.
The Republicans are fucked because the apparent splintering of the party continues despite the putative win. McConnell and Portman were vicious with their postgame statements if not with their vote, and a fair number of Republicans would probably vote to convict if they weren't afraid of the resulting backlash which has already begun for those who did vote to convict. This could escalate into a three-way party splintering: the original GOP (which is still devotional to Trump), the "centrist" GOP (which met this week to discuss a new political party), and an even-more extreme spinoff which Trump could still threaten to form if the GOP doesn't quite kowtow to his every whim or even if Trump just feels like it.
Trump is fucked because he's no longer protected by the sigil of the office of the President and is still on the hook: from the SDNY for shenanigans about his taxes, from Jean Carroll whose case is move forward, from Georgia for that phone call, even from the Senate again if they're able to leverage the 14th amendment to block Trump from running again, and on and on.
Does this mean everyone else is fucked? Possibly, if we don't work to improve things.
Happy Valentine's Day!