Trump’s Senate Acquittal Had To Happen
because redemption wasn’t going to occur, and neither was justice for America.
Justice works two ways. It changes the guilty or it satisfies the victims.
The convicted man can emerge from his punishment, be it prison or fine or impeachment, changed. Whether genuinely contrite or simply afraid of further punishment, he no longer commits the crime. He behaves differently. We might hope that the guilty man comes to understand the pain of his assault on others, but the justice system is mostly clustered around making horrible people so afraid of acting on their horrible impulses that they don’t do it again (or at all).
Law seeks to prevent crime. Justice seeks to make the guilty hurt enough to feel remorse or fear.
But the Senate impeaching Trump post-Presidency wasn’t going to change anyone. The only thing that might possibly change is that Trump wouldn’t be allowed to run again. It certainly wouldn’t have changed Trump, much less his behavior. He is incapable of feeling remorse. Moreover, the Senate makes laws but it doesn’t enforce Justice. It has little power to make Trump suffer in any way at all. It cannot imprison him, or fine him, or beat him. A post-Presidency impeachment is a largely symbolic act, and we know Trump is incapable of understanding…
