I'm just a dude on Twitter. You don't have to listen to me.

But I'm begging you, please understand the motivation behind these rationales for impeachment and conviction.

It has NOTHING to do with principles. ZERO.

The are all theoretical exercises.

Built in to those exercises are assumptions that simply don't exist in the real world.

For example:

The biggest assumption that simply doesn't exist in the real world is the idea that "standing up for principle" is "the right thing to do."

That is false. Because you're arguing for an outcome while something VERY WRONG is being done to achieve it.

In this case, you want Trump gone. Fine. I get it.

But, it is NOT principled to achieve that outcome on the back of a very hypocritical use of the constitutional provision of impeachment.

You can't be principled while supporting something that isn't.

And here you can't separate the two. You can't just say "well, yeah. Democrats are hypocrites, but..."

Because that right there is an unprincipled position.

Your whole argument is flawed from that point forward.

If you agree that there's hypocrisy, that ends any claim to uphold principle if you support the action that is being taken by hypocrites.

THAT'S how it works.

So to cap this off:

It is intellectually consistent to say "what happened was wrong, the lies about the election were wrong, it was a horrible situation all the way around, but impeachment and removal of one guy is not the correct course of action."

And the reason why is because the people voting to impeach and convict also contributed to the atmosphere that culminated in the riot on the 6th.

Scapegoating one man for it absolves those people of guilt because they'll NEVER face a similar punishment.