The Senate is hearing the case for Donald Trump’s impeachment. There are a lot of good and necessary reasons to convict Trump. His words and actions for weeks prior to the Capitol insurrection are more than sufficient evidence of his intent to incite his seditionist brigades. The violence that occurred would not have happened but for Trump’s encouragement.

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Trump’s defenders are leaning on the argument that it is unconstitutional to impeach Trump after he has left office. That is not only untrue (the Constitution literally states that the Senate “shall” have sole authority to try “all” impeachments), but even if it were, Trump was impeached while he was still in office, so the argument is irrelevant.

What the focus on this bogus defense tells us is that Republicans have absolutely no legitimate defense for what Trump actually did. So they are struggling to avoid that debate altogether and get him off on a technicality. In other words, both Democrats and Republicans agree that Trump’s actions were abhorrent and even impeachable, and he is guilty as charged. Republicans, however, want to let the whole coup thing slide. They seem to be arguing that every president should be allowed one violent attempt to overthrow the government. But after that…?

In the meantime, Trump is said to be biding his time and planning his comeback tour. He’s laying low and playing golf so as to project an impression that he doesn’t care about any of this. But, according to what Trump associates told Politico, he has big plans brewing:

“Now, heading into what could have been an historic bipartisan rebuke, the former president and his team are confident both of his acquittal and that he’ll come out of the trial with his influence over the Republican party all but cemented.”

So Trump is feeling pretty good about having gotten away with a treasonous assault on the Congress of the United States. Just as he predicted, his supporters wouldn’t abandon him even if he shot someone on 5th Avenue. The solidarity of the Trump-publican Party is surprisingly sturdy.

What’s strange about this is is that the American people are solidly opposed to Trump and favor his impeachment and conviction. So what’s in it for Republicans to continue propping him up? This Senate hearing would be the perfect opportunity to free themselves from the yoke of Trump’s noxious and unpopular authoritarianism and egomania. They should take advantage of it.

Furthermore, Trump is not likely to remain sequestered in his Mar-a-Lago bunker forever. His silence will eventually give way to to his narcissistic compulsion to exalt himself. He can’t resist. That could result in some form of televised programming. He could launch another unreality program on Newsmax or OANN. There would be no guarantee of success for him in that venture. In fact, it likely only draw a tiny audience of glassy-eyed disciples.

The worst part of this possibility is that it would subject the nation (and the world) to more of the daily torture of watching Trump lying, and whining, and insulting, and bragging about himself, every damn day. He spent the last four years turning the presidency into a sort of daily soap opera, never giving the public a rest. People forget that in past presidential administrations you could go for weeks without hearing anything about the president. But Trump had to always be the center of attention.

Consequently, while Senators could comfortably convict Trump on the merits of the evidence against him, they should also be thinking about the mental health welfare of the nation. Their conviction could ensure that we wouldn’t have to see his craggy face or hear his grating voice every day. His conviction would banish him to his own private prison where his acid rants wouldn’t splash on the rest of us.

For Republicans, convicting Trump would allow them to pursue their political agenda without having to repeatedly make excuses for more of Trump’s atrocities and idiocies. It would free them to engage in an ideological debate on substantive issues that matter to them. And for those reasons alone the GOP members of the Senate should more seriously consider voting to convict Trump and get him out of their way. The question is, do they have the intellect and courage to do that? Don’t bet the rent money on it.

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