Last night, just as I was about to fall asleep, I saw the news that the House of Representatives had impeached Donald Trump for a second time. This news didn’t surprise me. I had a feeling that Trump would be impeached again due to evidence that he incited last week’s violent uprising at the Capitol. What makes the second impeachment remarkable, though, is that ten Republicans voted to impeach. Usually, when presidents get impeached, legislators vote according to their party affiliation. But this time, ten Republicans decided that Trump’s conduct was worthy of formal censure. By voting to impeach even though they are in the same party Trump is, they proved that they have basic decency.

For the past four years, I’ve watched and listened to Donald Trump. I’ve seen people champion and praise him. I’ve read comments from loved ones claiming that people didn’t give Trump a chance. And I just wonder what in the hell that man has to do before decent people wake up and realize that he’s a terrible leader and an even worse person. In U.S. history, there have only been four attempts at impeachment. Two of those attempts have targeted Donald Trump! The others targeted Bill Clinton and Andrew Johnson. Richard Nixon was threatened with impeachment, but voluntarily left office before it could happen.

Here we have Donald Trump, who has been polarizing and controversial from the get go. He’s been involved in many shady business dealings, openly admits to harassing and molesting women, is insulting and rude to people who don’t kiss his ass, and curries favor with dictators. What, exactly, is it going to take before people realize that he’s completely ill suited to lead a country? Why are people committing crimes in Donald Trump’s name? It’s so obvious that he won’t be grateful for people’s efforts to keep him in office. He expects people to worship him, and so many people do… despite all of the evidence that he’s just awful.

I remember when I was growing up, hearing about Richard Nixon basically being forced to resign the presidency over the Watergate scandal. People often referred to him as a terrible president, even though he’d won a second term of office. Nixon resigned the presidency when it became clear that he was going to be impeached and removed from office. As he left the White House, he said he was resigning for the good of the country and asked Americans to support the new president, Gerald Ford. In Nixon’s case, he’d lost support from the Republican party, and it was obvious that he would be impeached and removed from office. But Nixon was also clearly a much better man than Trump is. He had the integrity to do the right thing.

If Trump had been in Nixon’s shoes, he would not have resigned. He would have gone through the proceedings and insisted that he was the best man for any job at all. Anyone who voted against him would incur his wrath, and he would spend his time finding ways to get revenge. Trump is a narcissist, and he can’t stand to lose. His four years as president have been terrible for the country on so many levels. I don’t write this because Trump is supposedly a Republican, but because to me, it’s easy to see that he’s just a despicable human being. And yet, some people keep saying that no one ever gave him a “chance”. Even my beloved Aunt Nancy, who has always seemed to be kind and intelligent, complains that Trump gets blamed for everything. Well, I will agree that not everything is Trump’s fault, but a whole lot of this shit is his doing. At the very least, he could have done a much better job asking people not to be violent and try to overthrow the government, right?

For God’s sake. The Capitol was ransacked by American people. The mob, who had come to Washington, DC at Trump’s invitation, threatened the lives of innocent people. Five people died. And Trump referred to the mob as “very special” and said he loved them. Only today, have I read that Trump has asked people not to be violent next week when President-elect Joe Biden takes office. And he only seemed to do that under duress. In fact, when the riots were going on, Trump wasn’t even there to be a leader. He didn’t accompany the supporters he’d asked to fight for him. Instead, he returned to the White House and criticized aides about how the scene had appeared, before attacking Mike Pence on Twitter. Trump caused the violence last week through his words. He should absolutely be removed from office or, at least be barred from running for office in the future.

I don’t have much faith that the Senate will do the right thing and convict Donald Trump for his obvious crimes and abuse of power. He clearly gets away with murder. I’m just relieved that we don’t have to endure another four years of this ugliness, even though I doubt Trump’s unhinged supporters will go away quietly. I feel sure that they will do what they can to undermine Joe Biden’s leadership. It does hearten me, though, to see that some Republicans do have a red line and Trump has finally crossed it.

Last night, I was sitting at home, where I’ve been for months on end. I was listening to disco and trying to boost my spirits, which have been pretty low recently. Every day, the news is worse… in just about every topic, ranging from the state of the environment and global warming to the surge of the coronavirus and new restrictions on our lives, to the masses of people who have lost their jobs and homes, to political unrest and violence. But Trump’s fans will continue to crow about what a “great” president he’s been. I just don’t see it. And I fear that if Trump doesn’t come roaring back, the way Hitler did, there will be someone even worse waiting in the wings to pick up where Trump leaves off.

It makes me very depressed and I wonder why I should bother sticking around.