Donald Trump Impeached for Insurrection

By Mildred Robertson

Donald J. Trump has accomplished something no other president has ever achieved. On January 13, 2021 he became the only President of the United States to be impeached twice. On January 13 the U.S. House of Representatives deemed Trump a clear and present danger to our country by a bipartisan group of legislators.  Two hundred and twenty-two Democrats and 10 Republicans voted to impeach the 45^th president of the United States for leading a bloody rebellion^. .  The insurrection claimed the lives of six U.S. citizens and endangered the lives of the entire Congress and its staff.  The legislators found Trump guilty of inciting his followers to riot on January 6^th as the congress convened to certify Joe Biden as the 46^th president of the United States. The move comes amid warnings of extremist violence that may occur between now and inauguration at state capitols around the nation.

While the impeachment addresses Trump’s misdeeds, it does not address his radicalized constituents nor how they will react to his censure. While Trump did not create the hate that spilled into the halls of our Capitol on January 6^th, he has nurtured a violent political ideology inside the Republican Party and provided a safe haven for the hateful doctrine held by the mob that descended upon our Capital.

While Trump has orchestrated the coalition of hate groups that have become particularly active in the last 4 years, he is a symptom and not the cause. He has simply nurtured the racial animus motivating the racist far right extremist proliferating in America. He has assembled a group of aggrieved Americans who project their failures to a rapidly diversifying demographic on the left that dilutes the voices of the aggrieved.

America has descended in two distinct camps, “Team Sedition” or “Team Democracy.  Our challenge is not a matter of party, but a matter of conscience. There are those among us who believe that those who desecrated the seat of our democracy must be accountable. Others preach that we should forgive and focus on reunification.

While I agree that we must strive to be “One nation, under God,” in order to achieve unity, we must have accountability. Those who would destroy our union cannot be given a free pass. They must repent for their sedition, and pay the price. Only then can they be welcomed back to full citizenship.

Clearly, there is no strength in a nation divided.  But a key component of a strong democracy is accountability.  Until we have addressed the foundation of the hate and violence unleashed upon our nation on January 6^th by Donald Trump and his minions, we cannot move forward. Until we have held responsible those who incited and carried out the heinous acts of sedition that occurred in our state capital, this nation cannot heal.

First comes repentance—then comes forgiveness. Then, perhaps, we can move toward unity.