It is nice to have a succinct synopsis of the very significant present moment in American politics. Whatever devastation for the US, the spill over for the rest of the world is yet another negative outcome of this empire’s reckless pursuits.
These days I spend little time with the Guardian’s opinion columns, and I associate, perhaps erroneously, Simon Tisdall with a conservative perspective, but this piece nails it.
Quite why Chief Justice John Roberts, who presides at the trial, calls the Senate the “world’s greatest deliberative body” is puzzling. Republican sycophancy, fed by fear of Trump, means it often more closely resembles Russia’s rubber-stamp Duma or Iran’s Majlis.
Along with this little incidental yet emblematic nugget, Tisdall highlights a few more that that show how deep the rot penetrates. There is no upside here.
Of all the many wrong things Trump has done, his most terrible legacy may be the destruction of trust in the workings of democracy, the US constitution, and the rule of law. His weird, slightly unreal trial in absentia symbolises that dread prospect.