In August of 1974, I was between my junior and senior years of high school. I had a part time job in retail, played a lot of golf, hung out with friends and watched a President, Richard M. Nixon, fall from grace. 

I am not a crook!

Contrary to popular notion, he was not impeached. He resigned. 

 And he did it because a group of Senators from his own party, came to the Oval Office and told him that enough votes existed that if he were to be impeached, he’d very likely be convicted and be forced to step down. For the good of the Country, they requested that he resign. 

Woodstein!!!!

To be sure, he was about to be impeached. The House Judiciary Committee had passed Articles of Impeachment which came as a result of weeks of testimony that came to be known
as the Watergate Hearings. And those hearings were called as a direct result of terrific investigative reporting by two journalists of the Washington Post, Woodward and Bernstein. 

I remember thinking that it was extraordinary that a President had resigned. In my young life, I’d seen one be assassinated (Kennedy) and one choose not to run for re-election (Johnson) and now I got to see one resign in disgrace and his Vice President (Ford) step into the

A Blanket Pardon?!

Presidency and issue a “blanket pardon” for everything his predecessor had done whether or not he’d been caught. 

 He issued the pardon in an effort let the nation heal. While his action was lauded by many, election day took place less than ninety days later and 5 GOP Senators and 49 GOP Representatives were sent home. The electorate evidently wanted to make a statement to the elected that they were still in charge! 

I didn’t expect to see anything like that, again, in my life. It was a once in a lifetime occurrence, right?

 But yesterday, House Impeachment managers provided 8 hours of evidence to support the single Article of Impeachment, Incitement of Insurrection. And it was incredibly compelling, using a combination of the President’s own words in Tweets and videos to show the path to January 6th, when a large group of his supporters breached security at the Capitol in an attempt to stop the certification of the election of Joe Biden. 

This is not a protest, it's a riot. A terrorist act. An act of treason.

Some of the video of the riot had not been seen by the public prior to the trial and it was chilling to watch and listen. A few of the Senators stood in rapt attention in an effort to hear whispered, frightened words of people hiding in offices, see people being beaten and, in one instance, shot by a Capitol Police officer. 

This took eight hours and was broadcast on CNN and the Congressional channel. (Nowhere else was it broadcast in its entirety which is amazing to me. In 1974, every channel had the hearing on, live!) 

What was most disturbing to me, though, is that many of the Republican Senators couldn’t be bothered to pay attention. They were in attendance. They occasionally looked up to see who was speaking. Some watched the videos that were shown. Too many read books (comic books in one case) worked through paperwork, and some even napped. Because, they say, this trial is a farce since the former President is already out of office. Some say it’s unconstitutional to even hold this trial. Some say that the President didn’t incite the riot, he was simply exercising his First Amendment rights. Those that aren’t saying these things are glad others are because it gives them cover when it comes time to vote to acquit. 

But if you watched the story told by the Impeachment Managers, in Trump’s own words and actions, it is achingly clear that the former President made a determined effort to void an election that was anything but fake with results that were definitive and accurate. An election that he lost, unequivocally! 

His defenders will say that he did that, simply because he thought he won. But the story that was told began more than a year ago when he began stating that he could only lose if the election was rigged. At the time, he was trailing very badly and that remained the case right up to election day. Then, he continued his lies around the veracity of the count. His one truth was to state that he got more votes than any incumbent ever; but that was also 7 million votes fewer than his opponent! And in riling up his supporters and telling them, on the morning of January 6th, that they needed to “fight like hell” to stop what was going on at the Capitol, he got his base to do his bidding and attack. 

 In the next few days, his lawyers will put on a defense. They are unable to dispute any of what was shown yesterday because it is all factual. It’s proof that the former President of the United States attempted to overthrow an election to remain in power. 

That’s against the law. 

 It’s treason. 

 It’s unconstitutional. 

 And it requires punishment. (Back in the old days, it was punishable with death. Fortunately, we’ve evolved.) 

The Senate is operating under the Constitution which states that a 2/3 majority is required to find the President guilty. Too bad that the jurors (Senators) in this case include a bunch of Trump’s co-conspirators. (Cruz, Hawley, Kennedy, Graham, Tuberville to name a few). 

So, I pose this question to this august body, purported to be the greatest deliberative body in the world – 

 Are there not sixty-seven good and honest people among you? Who, like the Senators in 1974, were willing to put country over party?