On Donald Trump and the acquittal

The news from America that Republicans voted almost overwhelmingly to acquit Donald Trump, although expected, is frightening for us all. It’s sending the message that it’s ok to use your power as a president to try to rig an election. This is the sort of news I’d expect to come out of Mexica or Kenya or Uganda … not the United States of America. If we don’t have fairness in our democratic process and if we give leaders the green light to use their power to rig an election just so they can stay in office then we lose our democracy. They have set a frightening precedent for the future that cannot be undone.

You might say well, perhaps he’s not guilty. But that’s not the case. The Republicans who voted to acquit Donald Trump accept that he did what he’s been charged with but they say, he learned a “pretty big lesson” and therefore won’t do it again. For someone to learn a lesson they need to accept they’ve done wrong and show remorse but Donald Trump has done neither of these things. He still denies any wrongdoing. The only lesson he’s learnt is he can break the law and get away with it.

Posted

February 6, 2020

Journal

Rachel M

Tags:

America, democracy, Donald Trump, elections, impeached, impeachment

Comments

11 responses to “On Donald Trump and the acquittal”

mvschulze

February 6, 2020

Here, in America …so many of us find no common ground with this embarrassment that somehow, some way has hijacked the White House, and the moral decency and pride that has earmarked this country for 244 years. Thank you for your words. M 😦

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1. Rachel M
  
  February 6, 2020
  
  Thank you for your words. It means a lot to hear it. I have to keep reminding myself that many people do not support him.
  
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Katrina

February 6, 2020

If there’s any glimmer of light, it’s that Mike Pence (the vice-president) may have been a lot worse than Trump, because of his evangelical Christian BS beliefs. Who knows what kind of medieval legislation he might put in place, if he got the chance. Small glimmer, I know, but just something to allay the despair that Trump’s acquittal brings on.

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1. Rachel M
  
  February 7, 2020
  
  I find it hard to believe that anyone could be worse than Trump. He will go down in history as America’s worst every president. But given his party seem content to let him break the law and look the other way I’ll acknowledge that his replacement may not have been much better.
  
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Abbie’s Tree House

February 6, 2020

Mafia Don John Gotti, “The Teflon Don,” was acquitted at his first three trials. He was never innocent, of course- he used a combination of bribery and intimidation to get the juries to vote his way.

But they fourth time they got him, and he died in prison.

Fingers crossed!

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1. Rachel M
  
  February 7, 2020
  
  I’ll keep my fingers crossed!
  
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Hangaku Gozen

February 6, 2020

I was at my local medical center at the time Trump’s acquittal was announced on the national news. It was very strange, because the waiting room was dead silent; even the small children in the play area were oddly quiet. I hadn’t seen anything like it since 9/11. I think, even though most of us were expecting it, we all felt depressed. As you say, this isn’t supposed to happen in the United States, a nation that conducts (conducted? maybe I should use the past tense) itself by the rule of law. We’d expect it from a country where corruption is rife—Afghanistan, China, one of the pre-industrial countries run by dictatorships. What made it worst was that media pundits were almost cackling, ‘You wait, now that he’s gotten away with this, things are really going to hell.’

I might feel some optimism about the candidates running for the Democratic nomination, but then the Iowa caucuses, an outdated form of election, sank into a morass of confusion and finger pointing, followed by the idiots who declared on social media, “If my candidate isn’t chosen, I’m not going to bother to vote.” Maybe this is why Trump managed to get into office, as incompetent and hated as he is: our opposition just can’t get it together.

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1. Rachel M
  
  February 7, 2020
  
  Perhaps now that he got away with it he’ll be even more sloppy with his illegal deeds (although hard to see how he could be even more sloppy than in this instance) and make it harder for the GOP to ignore. Somehow I know they’ll continue to ignore it and even more depressing is he’ll probably get reelected.
  
  I saw the news about the Iowa caucus and must admit I didn’t really understand why they count people milling around a gym hall. It seems a strange way to elect a party leader. I hope they get their act together and a good strong leader comes out on top.
  
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Jonathan

February 7, 2020

I struggle to understand how so many people can be so blind, be played so easily, or accept so many lies without question. Mind you – look at what happened in our last general election, where the party of the 1% won 70% of the house…

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Belladonna

February 8, 2020

the acquittal totally blew my mind. To say that hope he learned a lesson makes him sound even more childlike. We have to show up at the polls this year! Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

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Denise

February 9, 2020

I listened to a podcast that compared this with Nixon – in those days people’s regard for the integrity of the process meant that even the Republicans on the same side sided, well, according to what they thought was right. Whereas now it is about your own side clinging to power no matter what. Why has this happened to us 😦

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