"Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light."

By Jadyn Cleary

This past Friday, Senate officials came to a compromise to hold the final vote next Wednesday to acquit or convict President Donald Trump. This compromise came after it was decided in a near partisan vote that the Senate would be hearing no witnesses before making its final decision. Many Republican senators wanted to hold the vote this past Friday so that they would not have to reconvene this coming week. However, the Democratic leaders pushed to delay the vote. This delay seems unnecessary considering the majority-Republican Senate already made it clear that they plan to acquit President Trump. 

By strategically negotiating to delay the vote, the Democrats have more time to underscore that the result of Friday's vote undermines our democracy, and Republicans are denying critical evidence to be heard from key witnesses to make it easier for them to acquit the President. Taking this vote later also means that Donald Trump will have to give his State of the Union address before the conclusion of the trial, which casts a pallor over this somber occasion. Neither the Republicans or Democrats are particularly happy about this considering it will mean spending 3 more days listening to senators make arguments that will ultimately not change the outcome of the trial. 

Although the final vote to acquit has not yet been done, I am certain that Trump will be acquited on Wednesday. This distresses me, not because of the outcome, but rather the process used to achieve that outcome. When impeachment hearings were held in the House, President Trump invoked executive power to obstruct justice by not allowing the House to collect sufficient evidence and call enough witnesses. This is why obstruction of justice is one of the articles of impeachment. When the House brought their case to the Senate and asked for more subpoenas and for permission to call more witnesses, their requests were rejected because the Senate said that the House should have collected all of their evidence and called all of their witnesses during the impeachment hearings. However, as I stated earlier, they were not able to do that because Trump directly blocked them. What is especially disturbing is even the new evidence that surfaced during the trial was ignored. Now the vote that will happen on Wednesday will be conducted in willful ignorance because the Senate knows that it will be easier to acquit Trump without hearing the damning evidence and eye witness accounts that may point towards a conviction. 

The conclusion of this trial can lead to a grim future. When the next President is elected, they will feel more comfortable committing crimes as long as they hold the majority in the Senate. As an American citizen, we should demand more from our federal justice system. America prides itself on being a just country with many power checks.  We are currently at a crossroad, as a people. We who protest regarding this unfair process can either take this quietly and forget, or we can produce an outcry so that we will be heard. It may seem like a lost cause, but there have been many times where the will of the American people has pressured change in the government such as the anti-war movement during the Vietnam War. The road ahead may look very dark, but it is up to us to light a collective candle and illuminate the road towards a better future. 

Works Cited

Liptak, Kevin. “A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Crucial Senate Vote and That Phone Call to Trump.” CNN, Cable News Network, 1 Feb. 2020, www.cnn.com/2020/02/01/politics/impeachment-senate-floor-phone-call-trump/index.html.