A particularly embarrassing period in our country’s history was the span between Election Day 2020 and Acquittal Day of President Trump’s second (and, hopefully, final, but don’t hold your breath) impeachment trial.

Although the problems extend much further back; let’s start with last spring. That’s when Democrats began gaming the system by pushing for easier ballot access. Democrats realize that they have more potential voters, but that a lot of them require much coaxing, like getting the kids to eat their veggies at dinnertime. Republicans are skeptical of massive voter registration drives, fearing among other things that PHIs (Persons Here Illegally) are somehow able to cast a ballot, and their doubts about a fair election skyrocket with the meteoric rise of mail-in votes. Also, Republicans tend to resent political handholding. They believe voters should be flag-waving patriots who voluntarily rush to become registered, thrilled at the prospect, without having to be sweet-talked into doing so.

Then, there’s Trump, who although scapegoated so unfairly for so long by a disingenuous mob of establishmentarian Democrats and Republicans, the media, academia, Hollywood, Wall Street, and that wacko radical left, nonetheless has to be held accountable for his own actions. No one forced him to tweet incessantly that the election was ‘rigged’ and ‘stolen’ without any more credible evidence to back it up than the Democrats’ flimsy and failed insta-peachment (more on that later). Mainstream media lackeys didn’t help their own credibility any by uniformly referring to Trump’s election challenges as “baseless” (that is an unnecessary adjective they use to persuade more so than to inform).

Trump’s attempt to pressure Vice President Mike Pence into securing the election for him screamed of: “I’m used to getting what I want” rather than truly “America first.” The last straw was Trump’s refusal to attend his successor’s inauguration.

There are many reasons why the election deserves to be carefully examined for irregularities, and what Trump should have said from the onset was: “I’d like to congratulate Joe Biden for a hard-fought campaign and for what seems to be a victory. I will immediately begin working with him and his team for a smooth and peaceful transition of power. However, because there are some questions about the results in some critical swing states, I am calling for a federal investigation into these matters. Nonetheless, unless conclusive evidence points to the contrary, I will, for the good of the country, work with Mr. Biden with the mindset that he will become the new president on January 20.”

But, he didn’t.

January 6 is the day Congress certifies electors and individual states may object if at least one of their senators and one of their House members objects. As the process got underway, and while Trump was rallying his followers to “peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard,” hundreds of them breached the Capitol Building, some merely excited to be there and taking selfies, but many intending on committing heinous atrocities, including potentially hanging House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and VP Pence. Though not the most tragic day in American history, it was arguably the ugliest. After all, horrific events such as Pearl Harbor and 9/11, while greater in destructive magnitude, were executed by a foreign enemy, not by our own fellow Americans. Some Republican Senators who were poised to object to their respective states’ electoral certification changed their vote after the Capitol invasion. Why? What does one have to do with the other? Either the election results were legitimate or not. Violence and even death don’t change the facts. Unless of course their initial objection was just a partisan hack ploy and after the day’s awful event, their consciences made a rare cameo appearance.

Trump’s instant response seemed forced and lethargic, as he was still in a trance over the prospect of no longer being president. It’s like being fired from a job and on your way out, you notice a fire in the lunchroom but you’re too much in a self-absorbed daze to yell “Help! Fire!” You didn’t start the fire, but you were too wrapped up in your own drama to realize the importance of putting it out immediately.

Surely the low point of his presidency, Trump was unintentionally snatched from the jaws of defeat by none other than Pelosi, whose sham of an impeachment based on the absurd argument that, because of Trump’s call to “fight like hell” – which, in context was a call to elected Republicans to “fight” politically, lest they be ousted in the next election’s intraparty primary – really meant “go storm the Capitol.” Even if that were true, that’s not what an “insurrection” is. The risk of our government collapsing to a few hundred yahoos was never real. Now, if Trump as commander-in-chief had called upon the military to arrest Congress, that’s what an actual insurrection would be.

Democrats argued that Trump could be tried even if out of office, because they could still punish him by forbidding him to hold elected office again, while Republicans said that’s unconstitutional. I agree with the Dems on this one. Granted, I think impeaching Trump was a horrible idea, but one well within their rights. Thankfully, Trump was acquitted. Had he been convicted, it would’ve set a precedent whereby if the Republicans recapture Congress in 2022, they could conceivably impeach Biden for his role while vice president in his son Hunter’s shenanigans, and impeach VP Kamala Harris for bailing out violent rioters during last summer’s protests. That would make the new House Speaker, presumably Republican Kevin McCarthy, our new president. How do  like them apples?  

And now, Trump can boast that his second acquittal makes him the only president in history to pass not one, but two official audits of his presidency.

Now does it all make sense why Congress’ approval ratings often drop to single digits, no matter which party is in charge?