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Republican Senators did the right thing…
…for themselves.
The acquittal of President Donald Trump shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. Even if Democrats had a majority in the Senate, they still wouldn’t have been able to reach the 2/3rds majority needed to remove President Trump from office.
Republican Senators have to answer to primary voters in their States. The people who bother to get off their asses and vote in primaries tend to be the most loyal, most activist, most ideologically pure in their respective parties.
There are many States where the general election is not competitive. Whoever wins the primary for the incumbent party goes on to win the general election 9 times out of 10. Therefore, it is the primary voter that Senators need to heed. The general electorate will just go ahead and ratify what primary voters have already decided.
It should then come as no surprise that Republican Senators (with the exception of Mitt Romney) voted to acquit President Trump. Primary voters in their State are Trump supporters and Senators who defy their own primary…
