A personal response to impeachment and acquittal

Erudite Partner and I are different. Together we face the horror of living in a country seemingly addicted to anger, where a substantial minority of our fellow citizens over and over choose white supremacy and selfishness over inclusive community. But we've learned different responses.

Her response to cruelty and injustice is immediate, strong, and brave. She feels the barrage of lies as an attack, but has taught herself to overcome the insult in order to act. And then she acts across a range of possibilities, from struggling against our government's addiction to torture to joining an electoral campaign.

My responses to cruelty and injustice, and to the falsehoods, are different. My sensibilities are not so incisive. Sometimes it can require of me more reflection to see clearly what I should deplore. When I do react, and then act, I can turn cold and hard, readying myself to deliver some kind of rebuke. I hope I am an ethical actor. I'm not always easy to be around when I move into what one of my mentors called "campaign mode."

I'm no Nancy Pelosi, but I completely resonate with what she told the Washington Post: after the January 6 insurrection: 

“I have a responsibility to be, as I say, passionate about what’s happening, but dispassionate about how to deal with it,” Pelosi said. “So I almost have to remove myself immediately from the emotion of it all.”

Given my instincts, I think all of us might do well to respond to a setback to democracy and decency, such as the impeachment acquittal, by trying to understand how to hurt the miserable excuses for human beings who are the Republican leadership and office holders -- how to hurt them where they can be hurt -- by taking their power away.

All of us, whatever our different responses to nightmarish turns of events at the Capitol and in the Senate, have some things going for us:

• We just did something huge. Please remember, millions of us rallied and defeated not only Donald Trump, but defended the House majority and won a tenuous majority in the Senate. The Biden administration is doing the job we elected it for: delivering as much healthy governance as is possible within a broken, messy system.
• Some good majority of the public (polls say in the high 50s) understood that Trump had done deep wrong by inspiring his mob to attack the Capitol. Much of corporate America doesn't want to be onboard with the Republican knuckle draggers and say they won't pony up cash for the campaigns of those who chose to side with Trump. We can keep it that way; money can be encouraged to be sensitive to the reputational damage of associating with crooks and cowards.
• Donald Trump isn't out of the woods because he got off. An array of federal and state prosecutors have plenty to look at and they will. And ordinary individuals, for example police officer victims of Trump's mob, can sue the instigator in chief. The evidence of his complicity has been laid out. The immunity he enjoyed as president is gone and the guy has plenty of aggrieved victims. Hey, maybe even E. Jean Carroll may win something out of him for the rape.
• And finally, we must build to keep Dems in power in 2022, however imperfect their governance will be. When the alternative is fascism, only a big tent stretching from the center-right through the far left makes any sense. No fun, but true. I'm sure I'll be writing here about the multitude of actions we can take to make this happen. But I can share my first one: I responded to the acquittal by setting up a small monthly donation to the Wisconsin Democratic Party. They've demonstrated competence, seem to understand that organizing is a year-round job, and have a vulnerable Republican Senate target in Ron Johnson coming up for re-election.

Speaking for myself, nothing heals like kicking a little Republican butt.

Image source.