Constitution of the United States of America 1789 - 2020

By a vote of 51 to 49, the U.S. Senate terminated the rule of law. We can only hope Republicans will pay a price for their cowardice.

The failure to call witnesses in [von Clownstick's] impeachment trial comes after he refused to cooperate with the House impeachment inquiry, an act that led to the article of impeachment charging obstruction of Congress. While previous presidents fought congressional efforts to obtain documents during impeachment investigations, none made such a blanket denial of documents and witnesses as [Dear Leader] did.

Congress no longer has the power to stop a president from doing anything they want to do. Amanda Marcotte notes that the Senate votes "to shut down witness testimony and to acquit [his majesty] should be understood as the consummation of the GOP's long courtship with authoritarianism".

They are not voting to declare the president innocent of the charges against him, since that is clearly absurd. They are voting to announce that, in their eyes, there's no limit to what can or should be done to maintain the Republican hold on power.

Update (February 2):  Carl Bernstein criticizes the Senate action as "violence done to the Constitution". It sets a dangerous precedent.

[T]he president of the United States can do almost anything without being held accountable.

Update (February 5):  The U.S. Senate voted 52 to 48 and 53 to 47 to acquit Fuckface von Clownstick on the two articles of impeachment. Mitt Romney made the news for being the only Republican Senator to find Dear Leader guilty of abuse of power.

Paul Blumenthal argues that parts of the constitution are "unusable".

[T]he Republican Party has shown it will take full advantage of that dysfunction in order to protect its president and maintain power as its base of support shrinks. The result is a presidency that quite literally can do no wrong.

Republicans were able to conduct a sham impeachment trial because the authors of the impeachment clause of the Constitution did not anticipate senators who would act to protect their political party instead of their branch of government.

Update (February 6):  In an interview with Bill Moyers, Steven Harper quotes Hannah Arendt.

[I]f everybody always lies to you, the consequence is not that you believe the lies, but rather that nobody believes anything any longer ... . And a people that can no longer believe anything, cannot make up its mind. It is deprived, not only of its capacity to act, but also of its capacity to think and to judge. And with such a people, you can then do what you please.

Update (February 9):  Dear Leader is taking his revenge amid other fallout. Bob Cesca says the stakes are even higher now.

The best-case scenario is that enough American voters will turn out to vote — overwhelming the impact of [Fuckface's] cheating and directly punishing [him] and McConnell's Senate with indisputable defeats. In fact, [the] acquittal [makes] it even more imperative that sane Americans in every state should take matters into their own hands and make [von Clownstick] pay electorally for what he's done. [He] can't just lose: The loss has to hurt.