It’s happened twice now, but I don’t think that the third time will be the charm—it probably won’t happen at all. Former president Donald Trump was officially acquitted on Feb. 13, and it was a direct display of the depravity of our nation today. We now live in a country where the President of the United States can get away with multiple questionable, and some certainly criminal, actions because of party loyalty. 

The charge for the second impeachment was for inciting the Capitol riot that happened on Jan. 6. The evidence? The literal courtroom, where the senators were attacked by a mob of angry Trump supporters. The speeches he’d made before hand, calling for his angry mob to march down to the Capitol. The threats he’d made to his supporters, telling them they had to “fight like hell, or [they] wouldn’t have a country.” But the evidence didn’t matter, because not a single juror in this case (the 100 senators) listened to it when making their decision.

The defense team had a simple and quite stupid counter to the evidence: you can’t impeach a former president, even if the actions he committed were during office. Wow! Hey, it’s okay if a president commits a crime in office, just as long as he’s due to leave soon! 

From speaking to several conservative friends of mine, their defense of this defense is just as depraved: the Democrats have it out for Trump, so the trial is a last ditch power grab to take him out. News flash! He’s already been taken out of office, but he has faced no consequences for the riots he concocted during the tantrum he threw for months after losing the election. 

And I don’t blame the Democrats for having it out for Trump at this point. The MAGA rioters were mainly targeting them, some got COVID due to the Republican senators not wearing masks, and 5 people are dead as a result of the riot.

Seven Republicans joined all fifty Democrats in voting to convict Donald Trump. These seven are the ones who didn’t fear Trump’s retaliation and hoped to force him out of the political party he’s all but taken over. But he wasn’t convicted, he was acquitted. These senators, some of whom are up for reelection in 2022, will likely face incredible adversity trying to get reelected as a conservative solely due to the loyalty many have shown to Trump. Free speech and opinion means less to them than loyalty to a man who doesn’t know or care about their names.

Since the second impeachment failed, we’re now going to face the consequences: Trump seems likely to run again in 2024, and I fear what he could do with another four years.