ANALYSIS: The partisan divisions that saved Trump are an expression of deeper and malignant trends that are a threat to constitutional democracy
is a column by POLITICO founding editor John Harris, offering weekly perspective on politics in a moment of radical disruption.
In this dynamic, democracy—or at least the rancid brand of it we have been practicing lately—is as much culprit as victim. For now, let’s examine what we are indignant about today. My colleague Myah Ward crunched some numbers on the Senate vote.The 52 Republicans who voted to acquit represent states with 156 million Americans. Senators voting to convict won their most recent elections with a total of 69.4 million votes, compared to 48.1 million for their main opponents.
David Birdsell, dean of the school of public and international affairs at Baruch College in New York, has done research projecting that in 20 years, 70 percent of Americans will live in the 15 largest states, meaning that 30 percent of Americans will be represented by 70 senators. In doing so, and in his brutal words about Trump’s conduct in attempting to use military aid as leverage to induce Ukraine to investigate the Biden family, Romney was doing something rare: Saying what he honestly thought based on his own notions of right and wrong, rather than calculating his words around political consequences.
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