It is a foregone conclusion that the travesty of an abomination of a fraud that will take place beginning today in the Senate will result in an acquittal. But it is also something more. It is the latest sign that American politics and the GOP are broken. Big changes are coming.
My guess is that as a result of GOP abuses, the failures of our system of government, demographic shifts in the US, and flaws in the Constitution regarding representation & how presidents are elected that in the next several decades we are headed for a major systemic disruption.
That almost certainly means new political parties. It may mean major efforts to revamp our Constitution. It could mean efforts by some states at secession. At the least it will be a sea-change much like the death of the Whig Party-at worse something more like what followed that.
I'm not saying we're do for another civil war. But I am saying that our situation is unsustainable. Too few have too much power. Too many are disenfranchised. Our legal and political structures are not suited to our political reality.
To paraphrase Nixon economic advisor Herb Stein, that which is unsustainable will not be sustained. Change is coming. This Senate trial will produce a GOP "victory" but in the end it is one more nail in the coffin of our system as we now know it.
We can only hope & work toward the goal that the change that is coming is to preserve what is best in our system and will help restore fairness, balance, the rule of law and equality of opportunity for all Americans-everything currently put at risk by our present day corruption.
