Trump: acquitted, but not cleared

Donald Trump, on January 6, when his followers assaulted the Capitol.MICHAEL REYNOLDS / EFE

The Republican Party has lost the opportunity that history had given it to break with Donald Trump, with his policy of polarizing the country, the erosion of democracy, and the sopholication that culminated on January 6 with the assault on the Capitol.

Although seven of his legislators joined the 50 of the Democratic majority, the second

against the former president declined when he did not achieve the required threshold of two thirds of the Senate.

Trump has collected undesirable milestones for who should be an exemplary figure, or at least loyal to the Constitution that he has promised to defend: he is the first president to face two political trials in the Senate;

He is the first to

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once he has left the White House, and he is the first to inflame his followers with an insurrectionary speech that led to the assault on the Legislative headquarters by a congregation of supremacists, far-right and violent in a episode that left the image of the largest democracy in the world touched.

During the process, senators have seen chilling images of the threat suffered and the harassment of even critical Republicans or Vice President Mike Pence himself for refusing to follow Trump's strategy of not acknowledging defeat.

The denial of the electoral result, in which the majority of the Republicans accompanied him above any sign of evidence, will undoubtedly haunt this party.

There is no Senate condemnation, therefore, against a president who has divided society and poisoned the political life of the United States. Trump is acquitted, but not clean.

The very leader of the conservatives in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, considered him "practically and morally responsible for the events", although he had voted for his acquittal.

It is to be hoped, or at least to be desired, that his chances are forever over and that conservatives will seek a way to clean up his legacy.

The Senate has passed a judgment;

that of history will be much more severe, with Trump, and the Republicans who supported him.