Why I Refused to Watch the Senate Impeachment Trial
I’d like to speak to a manager about canceling my subscription, please?
I heard someone say that a common trait of empaths is that we have a tendency to watch the same movies and shows over and over. There’s a reason for this: we know how it ends. The last thing we want in this world is a juicy plot twist where something happens and we are ill-prepared for it emotionally. I know, we’re a special bunch. Game of Thrones destroyed us for years.
The Senate Impeachment hearing is my departure from this habit. I could not bring myself to watch. I flat out refused.
I refused for the same reason why I actually watch the same three shows from start to finish with a frequency that is shameful: I have seen this episode before and I know how it ends. Also, I don’t like the ending.
Our congress is broken. Horribly broken. Four years ago, it was fractured. Now it lays in shattered pieces and somehow no one bothered to sweep that mess into a neat little pile with all of the clean-up that happened after the insurrection on January 6th.
I understand the historical implications of what is happening in our country right now. I understand how unprecedented it is. We’ve never impeached a president twice and we certainly haven’t held a trial to convict one after he was out of office.
I’m frustrated.
Thursday, 15 GOP senators just didn’t show up for work. They stayed home. They’ve heard enough. They’re not voting to convict and that is that.
Frankly, you can’t fault me for having made up my mind about what happened and refusing to hear the trial when those who are making the decisions about its ending can’t be bothered to do it either. Watching this disaster is their job, not mine.
Yesterday, senators who are supposed to vote on whether to convict Trump met with his defense team to help build his case. I wish I could pull a really witty analogy out of a hat right now but I can’t even do that. There is nothing that even remotely compares to this. It’s analogous to nothing.
This die was cast before we even started. It’s like promoting a TV series by telling the audience it’s about a man who dies in the third episode. Side bar: we see you This is Us.
This may be the biggest, grandest, and most controversial dog and pony show of our time. When you think about the fact that the moment you are living right now will be studied in high school classes in 100 years, it’s mind-boggling. Still, my TV remote has not moved in a week. My car stereo has moved from NPR to Sirius Yacht Rock.
I am not blind to one of the biggest underlying motives the democrats have for this impeachment conviction. It saves 2024. I think Trump is just crazy enough to run for office again in 2024 and his die-hard followers that have remained with him since January 6th are just crazy enough to vote for him again. This can’t happen.
Unless the Senate votes to convict Trump for inciting an insurrection on January 6th, an entire “army” will be preparing for the next four years to put hate back in the White House. It would ruin our country.
This isn’t going to happen. No one is going to call for a secret ballot count that could ensure that spineless GOP senators can protect themselves from their own constituents. They will vote for chaos instead of their country.
I’d like to say I can’t blame them but they carry their own fault. They’ve seen what happens when you try to talk sense and put an end to tyranny. An angry mob with zip ties ready breaks down your door and calls for your head on a platter. Literally.
They helped create the monster they can’t hide from. So instead, they hide from the truth. They will not vote to convict. They will vote to keep our country fractured instead of suturing the wound. They will perpetuate that the idea that hate doesn’t even have to fight to win. It just will.
I’m tired of seeing hate win. I don’t like that ending. I want a different one. We’re getting there. We take a step forward when we fire the show’s writers and kick the lead actor off the show.
No one wants to watch a show where you can guess the whole storyline and end in the first five minutes. It’s a waste of time. I have better things to do. Like working for the next two years to get this supporting cast of characters off the show, too.
