This is just as hollow as it sounds
Donald Trump was formally impeached for the second time on Wednesday, making him the first president to have this specific dishonor. Whatever happens from here on out, Trump and the GOP can’t erase this – it’ll be the most permanent legacy he leaves behind. No wonder they’re urging unity and healing while not acknowledging the venomous rhetoric that’s been coming from right-wing media long before Donald Trump announced his presidential run. Without acknowledging any wrongdoing on their own part, the Republicans opposing impeachment like to claim that going after Trump in this way would only cause further division.
The argument is just as hollow as it sounds – and not even the Republicans believe it. If they truly did believe it, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene wouldn’t be announcing her latest plan to invoke an article of impeachment against Joe Biden on the day after he’s inaugurated, but that’s her latest buffoonish plan. Citing an abuse of power that she never really gets around to defining, Greene is trying to figure out a way to blame the Capitol siege on the same guy who’s made healing the country a part of his platform.
This nonsense is guaranteed to go nowhere, aside from rightfully embarrassing Greene in Congress if she actually does keep to her word – but it’s a sign of what we can expect from Trumpers in the future if they’re trusted with power: Using constitutionally prescribed norms as partisan weapons until they become useless. Reps like her are the reason we can’t afford to get complacent in 2022.
James Sullivan is the assistant editor of Brain World Magazine and an advocate of science-based policy making