At the heart of this 2nd Trump trial lurks is an ugly and disturbing question about the health of American democracy: if a President spreading a lie about election fraud and attempting to subvert an fair election doesn't consist of an impeachable offence then what does?

Let alone when those actions led to an attempt at insurrection.

It seems highly unlikely that if President Trump had committed the same crimes as President Nixon that the modern Senate would convict him (as they would have done with Nixon). That suggests a great...

...decline in the health of American political institutions. These questions seem especially acute about the GOP- which in a two party system is one half of the guarantors of the republic.

Given that the GOP seem certain to acquit Trump seems hard to imaging any circumstances in which the Democrats would vote to convict one of their presidents. This precedent will live on. A significant check on executive power has basically evaporated.