The most important consequence of the Senate trial is not going to be the acquittal that seems a foregone conclusion. It is the precedents the trial will set. Trump will take it as license that he has limitless power, that seeking foreign involvement in an election is fine,...
...that abuse of power is not a thing, that the Constitution and the law are whatever he interprets them to be. This will compound his similar conclusions from the Mueller investigation and the lines Barr and his other lawyers have been feeding him.
It will also set a precedent that impeachment trials need not be taken seriously in a judicial sense, that they are pure political theater in which no rules or standards apply. The Constitution will be seen as a limitlessly flexible document that can be twisted into any shape.
So don't see this rigged sham as merely a way that a corrupt president escapes accountability. It is a license for Trump and McConnell and their successors to rule by fiat guided by greed and narrow self-interest. What it covers up is bad. What it unleashes will be worse.
