Trump, Senate will permanently share impeachment stain

This is easy to write, easy to read and seemingly impossible to believe.
The U.S. Senate is expected to cast a majority of its votes today for President Trump’s acquittal — not only abdicating its constitutional duty, but abandoning our democracy.
Last week, once the Senate voted by the slimmest of margins to not subpoena witnesses or relevant documents it rejected even the pretext of a fair trial being heard by impartial jurors.
The outcome of this farce of a trial was predetermined from the outset by the Republican-led Senate’s leadership. The fix was already in.
Call it the McConnell Doctrine: Don’t bother me with the facts. My mind is already made up. The American people don’t need to know those facts, anyhow.
Though the final vote was delayed until today — to accommodate Trump’s State of the Union (Kingdom?) — the outcome is not in doubt. It never was.
Despite its craven vote Friday, the Senate majority continues to make excuses for voting as it did.
Sen. Lamar Alexander, a moderate Republican, when there was such a thing, said he didn’t need to hear any more evidence because the House managers had proved their case.
He just didn’t think Trump’s conduct was bad enough to remove him from office and he felt it was the voters’ job to decide who was president — not the Senate’s.
That is, seeking to collude with a foreign government to corrupt a U.S. election while stonewalling an investigation of those acts is not that bad while, excuse me, I pass the buck.
Others said they worried that a vote to allow even more revealing testimony or information might worsen the nation’s divisions.
So they voted to hear no evil, see no evil, while encouraging the nation’s divider in chief. Huh?
But regardless of how these senators spin it, it will not grant them absolution for their roles in this farce.
These senators have not just given Trump a license to do whatever he wants to win an election but have branded themselves with his misconduct that’s as lasting as this impeachment marks this president.
Make no mistake, President Trump’s impeachment will leave a permanent stain on his time in office. Today’s acquittal won’t wash it out, either.
But far worse is the damage done to our Constitution — caused by this president’s corruption and sealed with the approval of the Senate — is also real.
Restoring the rule of law and our constitutional form of government is ultimately in the hands of We the People in November.
Trump is not innocent of those articles of impeachment because partisan politics acquitted him.
The truth is always hard, even hard to hear — but unthinkable that it’s not worth defending.