February 15, 2021--57-43

Depressed by the vote in the Senate not to convict Trump, struggling to keep my usual and often naive optimism intact, angry that only seven Republican senators had enough courage (some might use more vivid language) to cross party lines to sanction the former president, I took another look at the numbers.

Yes, though still only seven Republicans voted with all the Democratic senators to convict Trump, I noticed for the first time that those seven plus the 50 Democrats added up to a total of 57 "yes" votes, which felt more optimistic than a party-line 50-50 tie.

Admittedly, even to me at my most self-deluding, 57-43 doesn't get one that close to the two-thirds (67) required to convict the felon in chief.

But I soothed myself by remembering that rarely in impeachment history have there been more than a very few, not more than two totally, who crossed party lines to join members of the opposition party. 

Seven made this crossing this time.

So what does it all mean?

Maybe not that much. But perhaps it signals that as the Whigs morphed into Lincoln Republicans, significant numbers of Republicans now might consider pursuing a similar contemporary political metamorphosis. 

After all the Trump and Republican outrages there may just be the votes for that. There is evidence that this is already happening.