01-01-2020, 05:00 PM
(12-31-2019, 06:53 PM)Bob Butler 54 Wrote: I believe the Senate gets to vote on the rules of the trial, with 51% of the vote required. If they decide on a secret vote, Trump is schrod. The threat of retaliation is gone. As is, a Republican cannot win a primary if he opposes Tump, but will not be able to win a general election if he supports Trump. A secret vote would be one way to avoid that trap.
McConnell has real control on what the rules are so long as Republicans vote along Party lines. People will know who voted for rules that force a quick, partisan up-and-down vote that ensures a whitewash of the charges. Such will be remembered in Senate races in 2020. I predict a fix because I know the character of Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump all too well and recognize that current Republicans are moral cowards who expect ruthlessness to prevail.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.