Today was a bad day.

We knew it was coming; the fix has been in for weeks. But still, it was disappointing to some few of us that placed our hope in witnesses.

Personally, I think it’s for the best.  Lisa Murkowski put it pretty well: It’s a sham trial; there’s zero sense dragging it out, and witnesses won’t make any difference to the result.  There’s maybe three people, maybe four, who hadn’t made up their minds before the Senate show began.  Right now there might be one.

“I have come to the conclusion that there will be no fair trial in the Senate…  I don’t believe the continuation of this process will change anything.  It is sad for me to admit that, as an institution, the Congress has failed.”
Lisa Murkowski, (R) Alaska

Remember:  Iowa is on Tuesday, and the decks are already stacked against all three candidates stuck in DC.  The Party wants Biden, or someone else they can control  (I’m not naming names, but it’s not one of these three, Yang, or Gabbard.)  So I’m just as happy to see Bernie, Liz, and Amy get back to campaigning.  Maybe in a week or so, once the shock has worn off, you will be too.

The no-witnesses vote wasn’t the only nasty thing to happen today.  News broke that Bloomberg bought himself a seat at the February debates with a large cash donation to the DNC.  Insiders are talking about a last-minute rules change to free up the Superdelegates for voting on the first round, which means the convention could literally be fixed — again.  And you’d be nuts to think it isn’t being discussed as a way to stop Sanders.

There’s exactly one way to keep the Party honest:  Open discussion of what they’re doing.  There’s no Republican primaries in some states; if this goes through, it’ll be as though there were no Democratic primaries either.

Once it’s done, there’s no sense complaining.  We put our heads down and slog forward.  But until then, we rant and rave like people are listening, because some of them are.  Make no mistake:  Politicians are craven beasts; they live and die by polls and trends and public opinion.  Shine the light of truth and they’ll scurry for cover like the cockroaches they are.

To the rest of you, tempted to strike out at each other in your understandable rage:  Don’t.  Play nice.  Everybody always has to play nice, dammit.  Otherwise, things go straight to hell.

What’s happening now is not bad.  Bad was 1200 Vietnam veterans, most missing limbs or in wheelchairs, all marching on the GOP convention in 1972 in perfect silence.  Bad was Daley’s thugs in ’68 busting heads at campaign offices.  Bad was Kent State and the ’67 summer riots and Bobby and Martin and John.  Bad was McCarthy and HUAAC.

We aren’t there today.  Trump is a pale shadow of Nixon and Vietnam is over.  It looks bad because we’re in the heart of it, but this too shall pass.

And, as long as we keep paying attention, things won’t ever get that bad again.