Acquitting Trump’s Mob
The high-stakes trial of Donald Trump ended as predicted. The American system has shown its weakness on a scale that is difficult to put into words, but in broader terms, his acquittal shouldn’t be celebrated by Trump and his allies: The senators who voted to convict represent about 202 million people, while those who voted to acquit represent about 125 million people, or about a 76 million person difference. That’s a whopping 38% difference. Put into any other context, this would be considered, at best, a Pyrrhic victory and at worst an absolute affront to our democracy. I agree with the latter.
But instead, impeachment managers and their supporters must shake their heads in awe at a complicit political party whose only prowess seems to be that of undermining democracy and winning cheap political points. Their myopic view of their actions seems to blind them to a dangerous reality: They’ve effectively acquitted Trump’s mob.
Trump showed that he had command and control over his mob. He then demonstrated that his stochastic method of drawing out anger, conjuring threats of political violence, and directing incitement of an insurrection works. Not only does it work, but he can obfuscate and deflect the blame for the inevitable result and walk away unfettered from the fire he started, even with the torch in his hand.
Unleashed on our nation is an empowered movement, one that even the GOP cannot control. The threat of political violence that they now harness is a powerful tool and one as old as democracy itself. Up and coming politicians throughout history have used both political violence and the threat of political violence to sway the political winds their way. We’re left with a situation where those who’ve upheld the insurrection as acceptable out one side of their mouths are now also spouting out the other side that it’s in fact the “other side” that makes us less free. But I argue that we are now less free than ever because of Trump’s mob and the GOP’s direct acquittal of it.
It’s a fact that Senators Adam Kinzinger, Liz Cheney, Tom Rice, and the 7 others who voted for conviction can’t escape. They come from largely Trump districts, and they will now face undemocratic and unpatriotic wrath from his mob. Already, the personal threats and censuring have started. It’s unjust, and that was put plainly so by Washington County GOP Chairman Dave Ball of Pennsylvania who said of GOP Congressman Pat Toomey in a recent interview, “We did not send him there to vote his conscience. We did not send him there to ‘do the right thing’ or whatever.” They aren’t even hiding it, but the typical Republican cheers it on and does not see the broad damage this does to our democracy.
The United States is in a real crisis in terms of balance of political influence. Any notion that the mob represents the prevailing ideal future of our society is a complete mirage made possible only by the outrageous imbalance of power our system has created. Consider how undemocratic the situation is: Trump’s mob has sway over 43 senators in a Senate that is controlled by Democrats, who represent 41 million more people in all. In a more specific sense, 15 states with 30 million collective people have 30 senators to represent them. In contrast, California alone has 40 million people, but can only send 2 senators. Projections show that if something doesn’t change in our system, 70% of the country will be represented by just 30 senators, while the remaining 30%, which is mostly white, aging, rural folks, will be represented by 70 senators.
Pile that on top of the fact that there is, verifiably, only one party that is attempting to make it more difficult for Americans to vote in 2022 and beyond: The GOP. Sore from their losses, the GOP is introducing voter restriction legislation around the country, but notably in swing states. It’s redistricting season again, which means we can expect the GOP to use data from Trump’s loss, as well as Senatorial and Congressional losses, to gerrymander to an extent never seen before, and with impunity.
What systemic changes must be implemented to accommodate a society much changed in the last 200 years? How do we ensure all Americans have fair representation in the future? These are questions that must be answered and enacted soon. If they are not, history shows that the mob will only feel more empowered to do harm to our democracy.
