Trial will be a pivotal moment

The following is an excerpt from an editorial in The Guardian:

The two charges – the articles of impeachment – against President Donald Trump are genuinely serious. The first says he “abused the powers of the presidency” by trying to get Ukraine to intervene in the 2020 election.

The second article charges Trump with obstruction of Congress as it attempted to carry out its lawful power of impeachment.

This will be a pivotal moment for America. If the Senate does not call the witnesses, it is in effect saying that Trump is above the law.

The U.S. upper house was originally created as a restraint on both the elected House and the president. It was there, the historian Robert Caro writes, as a check on “the possibilities for tyranny inherent in executive authority.” That is why the Senate has so many powers, including that of trying an impeachment. Yet the current Senate is a place of ruthless partisanship and irreconcilability, acting invariably on behalf of Trump.

This trial is therefore not just a defining moment for Trump and for the presidency. It is also a defining moment for the Senate itself. If the Senate votes on purely party lines to acquit and Trump is then re-elected, this would be an infamous outcome.

The idea that a president can abuse his office for personal gain would be accepted. A new and lawless presidential legitimacy would be sanctioned. And the checks and balances of the U.S. Constitution would no longer exist and would need to be built afresh.