Don't get bogged down in the minutiae of Donald Trump's Senate impeachment trial - the procedural maneuvers aimed at getting witness testimony and new documents that Republicans want to prevent at all costs. Stay focused on the big picture.
Here are the 10 big things you need to know.
1. Did Trump commit an impeachable offense?
Yes. His attempt to get a foreign power to help him win the 2020 election is precisely the sort of thing the framers of the Constitution worried about when they created the impeachment clause.
2. Will the Senate convict him and remove him from office?
No. Even if every one of the 45 Democratic and two independent senators vote to oust Trump, 20 Republican senators would need to join them in order for Trump to be removed from office. The odds that 20 Republican senators will do so are exactly zero.
3. Why won't they?
There are not 20 Republican senators with the courage and integrity to protect the Constitution and the nation from the most dangerous and demagogic president in history.
4. Why are they so spineless?
Because they want to keep their jobs, and they know that 88% of Republican voters approve of Trump. They fear Trump's sway over their voting base and his massive fundraising apparatus.
5. Why do 88% of Republican voters support him?
Because he has convinced them he's on their side and that he's the victim of a plot orchestrated by the establishment and "deep state" bureaucrats to oust him.
6. How has Trump retained the support of 88% of Republicans?
By lying constantly, casting the mainstream media as biased and untrustworthy, relying on his propaganda machine (Fox News and right-wing radio) to trumpet his lies, using Twitter and Facebook to deliver those lies directly to his followers and fomenting the "culture war" - wielding deep divisions over race, guns, religion, abortion and immigrants - to fuel his base.
7. Where's the money to finance all this coming from?
Billionaires, CEOs, corporate executives and the denizens of Wall Street continue to fund the Republican Party and bankroll Trump and his propaganda machine. They're doing this because they're raking in billions thanks to the Trump-Republican tax cuts and regulatory rollbacks.
8. Will the House impeachment and Senate trial change public opinion about Trump?
No. Trump's overall job ratings haven't budged. In the most recent polls, 44% of Americans approve of the way Trump is handling his job as president, while 53% say they disapprove. These percentages are close to where they were in September, before the House launched its formal impeachment inquiry and voted to impeach Trump.
9. What will Trump do now?
Trump will claim that his upcoming acquittal by the Senate clears him of all charges, just as he claimed that Attorney General William Barr's whitewash of the Robert Mueller report absolved him of charges that he sought Russian help in the 2016 election.
10. What does this mean for the 2020 election?
None of this is likely to sway the majority of Americans who don't want Trump re-elected.
To be sure, the Republican Party will try to suppress the votes of likely Democrats, Russia will almost certainly try again to help Trump, billionaires and big corporations will spend vast sums seeking to get Trump re-elected and the Electoral College will further handicap the Democratic candidate.
But Democrats and independents are fired up. The "blue wave" in 2020 could be a tsunami.
Tribune Content Agency