Why Take the Trial Seriously?

In her latest Washington Post column Megan McArdle makes a suggestion to the Democratic leadership I feel confident will go unheeded:

If Donald Trump directly caused the Capitol insurrection on Jan. 6, then Democrats need to prove it.

To be clear, I believe Trump deserves to be convicted of grave crimes against the republic and barred from ever again running for office. But I also believe that asserting these things will not suffice; Americans need to see all the evidence. And I’m worried that Democrats won’t supply enough of it.

and explains her reasoning:

One reason is to put the powerful people who colluded with Trump on the record, under penalty of perjury. People who made baseless claims of election fraud, or helped assemble that volatile mob on the day of the certification, are more responsible for what happened than the deluded fanatics who followed their lead; they should be more accountable. Force them to acknowledge what they did, or let history record their refusal to do so.

More important is to lay out the entire case before the large number of Americans who haven’t understood exactly how the events of Jan. 6 unfolded or how much Trump and his allies did to foment that insurrection. That is, those Americans who support impeachment, but weakly, should be left in no doubt that they are on the right side. And Republicans who support Trump, but weakly, should be given every chance to change their minds.

Sadly, her column also expresses the roots of the core problem that faces us now. There are actual, grave differences of opinion about the past, present, and future of the country. To many Democrats the truth of those views is so evident that failing to agree with them can only be attributed to malice.

What they fail to recognize is that many Republicans see things precisely in the same way: the truth of their views is self-evident as is the malice of the Democrats.

At present I see no peaceful liberal democratic way to bridge those two different sets of views.