Težko bo. Pregloboko so zabredli v populizem najnižje sorte. V “rednecks” stil populizma. Pregloboko za strateški razmislek, za korak nazaj in novo strategijo. In to velja za večino konzervativnih strank širom zahodnega sveta, edina svetla izjema je morda bila le nemška CDU pod vodstvom Angele Merkel. Vendar je tudi njene dobe konec.

Rešitev za žlahtne konzervativce se zdi le še v tem, da sedanje konzervativne stranke, ki so se ujele v past rednecks populizma, trdo trčijo v dno in se razbijejo. Na njihovem pogorišču pa zrastejo bolj žlahtne konzervativne stranke, ki bodo svojo volilno bazo nagovarjale z bolj progresivnimi idejami in na bolj sofisticiran način. Toda ta pot bo še dolga. Kajti, kot kaže spodnji tekst na primeru impeachmenta Trumpa, sedanje elite konzervativnih strank ne želijo rešilnega pasu.

Ob tem pa je povsem enaka tudi dilema, ali je mogoče liberalce rešiti iz objema konzervativcev. Tudi če je ta objem smrtonosen in če se (nekdanji) liberalci tudi sami zavedajo, da je ta objem smrtonosen. Tako za njihove stranke kot zanje osebno. Na žalost je odgovor podoben kot zgoraj. In v ponedeljek lahko pričakujemo potrditev tega kolektivnega skoka v samomor.

It’s easy enough to understand why the impeachment managers are working so hard to separate Trump from the Republican Party: They still hold out hope of persuading some Republican jurors.

“When they played that clip, for example, of the insurrectionists chanting against the G.O.P., it was a powerful way to make the point that these people don’t represent you, senators, they represent Donald Trump and how disruptive an influence he’s been,” said Adam Schiff, the lead prosecutor on Trump’s first impeachment trial.

If Republicans were ready to move on from Trump, the impeachment managers would be giving them a gift. By convicting him, Republicans could, after reaping four years of rewards for their complicity, wash their hands of a leader many are said to privately disdain. Those who want to run for president themselves could clear the decks of a competitor. And, of course, they could ratify the narrative that Trump was aberrant, and that they bear no responsibility for his attempt to overthrow the democracy they purport to revere.

Last month The New York Times reported that McConnell was pleased about this impeachment, believing Trump deserved it and that it would make it easier to purge him from the party. House managers sometimes seem to be speaking directly to him.

Yet because much of the G.O.P.’s base appears to sympathize with the insurgents, the Republican jurors can’t accept what Democrats are offering. According to a new survey by a project of the American Enterprise Institute, 66 percent of Republicans believe that Biden’s victory was illegitimate. Thirty-nine percent of Republicans agree with the statement, “If elected leaders will not protect America, the people must do it themselves even if it requires taking violent actions.”

Some of those who disapprove of violence are captive to conspiracy theories about the Capitol riot: Fully half of Republicans say antifa was behind it. McConnell, likely sensing where his party is, has already voted that the current impeachment is unconstitutional.

On Thursday, House impeachment managers played a video montage of Republican officials and ex-Trump staff members denouncing Trump for doing exactly what he’s being impeached for. “The fact that these flames of hate and insurrection were lit by the president of the United States will be remembered as one of the darkest chapters in our nation’s history,” said Gov. Phil Scott of Vermont.

Republican senators are being given the opportunity to get on the right side of that history, to distance themselves from a disgrace that they must know their descendants will someday read about. They’re being given a chance to rewrite the shameful history of how the Republican Party has behaved for the last four years.

They will almost certainly not take it. For rhetorical purposes, the Democrats waging this quixotic battle for accountability have to pretend that the Republican Party is redeemable. The rest of us do not.

Vir: New York Times