It would take every Democratic senator and 20 Republican senators to satisfy the constitutional requirement of a two-thirds vote to convict President Trump and remove him from office.

Everyone agrees that this won’t happen, no matter what happens at the Senate trial (or, as Republicans hope they can succeed in it being, faux trial).

As Robert Reich has pointed out, it logically follows that “there aren’t 20 Republican senators with the courage and integrity to protect the Constitution and the nation from the most dangerous and demagogic president in history,” and this, no less than the phenomenon of Trump itself, is one of the most dismaying things about the times we live in.

Edward PackardDurango