dudog wrote: ↑February 11th, 2021, 7:46 am
These images are gonna stay with people. It's truly another 9/11 for the visceral feeling it evokes.
I want to focus on dudog’s observation here to think aloud about the final act of this impeachment trial.
Lots of new documentary evidence presented yesterday. I understand it’s highly unlikely Trump will be convicted, but I am nevertheless interested in the number of R Senators who will vote to convict. I guess it’s somewhere between 0 and 8. Probably 4-5 (yes?), but probably not 8. How to get to 8?
If I had the ear of the managers, I’d suggest that their summing up include something like the following, which is premised on what I see as the importance of dudog’s point.
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The election of 2020 and its aftermath, including the Big Lie, January 6, and this trial will soon and for the next 10 years, and then 20 years, and then 50 years and beyond, be the subject of countless courses in American colleges and universities. History and Political Science courses on Electoral and Constitutional History, Constitutional Law. Their titles will include: The Election of 2020, American Carnage, The Attempted Coup of 2020, Overthrowing American Democracy, A Republic If You Can Keep It, The Implosion of Conservatism, American Terrorism, The Politics of Impeachment.
Courses in History and Political Science often rely substantially on what are called “primary sources,” original documents. Some are famous — the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, the Emancipation Proclamation, Supreme Court decisions. More broadly, primary sources include the written and oral testimony of millions of historical actors, leaders, citizens, activists of all persuasions.
But increasingly the primary sources of human history include visual as well as written and oral evidence. We the House Managers, in order to tell the story of the President’s incitement of insurrection, have presented both written and video evidence. You will soon vote on the basis of this evidence. Is it persuasive or not?
But know, too, that millions of students in the coming decades — beginning next academic year, and every year thereafter for decades and in hundreds of colleges and universities — will also read, hear, and watch this evidence. These startling images, these shocking sounds, these ugly, vicious voices are going to stay with these students. They will remember this vote — your vote — more than they will remember the details of the Declaration of Independence or the intricacies of the Emancipation Proclamation. They will study the election, compare the campaigns of Donald Trump and Joe Biden, learn about the several attempts to overthrow the results, watch the events of January 6, watch this impeachment trial. In the final weeks of these courses they will discuss the choices you Senators make. Your names are going to stay with many, many of these students.
It is often noted that the historical record holds accountable the makers of history. So, people ask you: How do you want History to judge you? But know this: “History” means students, those millions of students who will view the record of this election, this President’s behavior, the terrorist mob of January 6, this trial, your vote. They will see and hear what happened. They will see and hear terrorists in action. They will hold you accountable for your conviction of this President, and for your defense of this President.
How do you want to be known to history? How do you want to be known to generations of young people in the decades to come? Is loyalty to Donald Trump worth your good name?
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I doubt this would garner more than 1-3 additional votes for conviction. But I’d be glad if such an argument added even a single vote. So I’d like the final presentation to be solemn, foreboding, and focus on the
future impact of those images and those sounds on those students, and
their “judgment of history.”
