A few of the members of the United States Congress have said it is just petty to impeach Trump. After all, he will be gone in a few days. Just let him go. Let's look at some of the implications of impeaching or not impeaching.
1/ American politicians blather on about America being a country of laws. In other words, personal interest, wealth, position and so forth do not influence the outcome of a trial. All is fair in the land of the brave and the home of the free. Of course this is complete nonsense but, at least verbally, this is what politicians aspire to.
If some one else had committed a crime, and, say, promised to leave the country, there would be no thought of letting him go scott free. He would be brought up for trial and either convicted or freed.
The same should apply to Trump. In fact, reversing the idea of a blind fold over the eyes of the justice lady who holds the scales in her right hand and the sword in the left, the punishment should be greater for a person in great responsibility who flouts the law. Convicting Trump for the great finale of his disastrous 4 years in office is simply the right thing to do.
2/ You, the members of congress, both in the house of representatives and in the Senate are sending a message to the American people which will be recorded in history for all time. You are saying either that firing up a mob to march on the very core of your democracy for completely specious, selfish, self serving reasons is either OK or is not OK.
Micky mouse regimes rarely have an orderly transition of power. With all the abuses in the American democratic system such as voting suppression, few and far between voting stations, denial of voting for registered people, use of voting machines, gerrymandering and so forth, the one ray of light in this whole sorry morass you call democracy was your orderly transition of power. Now even that has been threatened. The world should send observers to the USA to monitor your elections. By not convicting Trump you send a message not only to your people but to the world that the last remnants of democracy in America is now gone.
3/ On a more prosaic note, some corporations have announced that they will no longer support the election campaigns of any member of government that votes against impeachment. There is a very tight correlation between the amount of money a candidate can raise and his chances of winning the vote. There are rare exceptions but the correlation is far greater than is ever seen in social sciences.
If corporations carry through in sufficient numbers, you are toast and this is where the public can have an effect. We, the people, simply boycott any corporation that supports corrupt politicians that refuse to convict Trump. This will threaten the destruction of your system of lobbying and vote buying, the way you enrich yourselves when in office and your cushy jobs when you leave office.
4/ If you do not convict Trump, he can continue to disrupt the government over the next 4 years, basically campaigning to become president in 2024, This is the worst nightmare possible for the American people and what little is left of American democracy. If found guilty in the Senate, it is much more likely that attorneys general of the federal government and of various states will move to convict him on many other crimes he has committed. They will not be afraid of his revenge when he again becomes president. By convicting Trump you open him up to a complete examination of his corrupt business practices.
Just a final thought. As strange as it seems, given the present voting in the Senate, it is in the interest of the Republican senators to convict Trump and in the interest of the Democrat senators to acquit him. If he is acquitted, he will continue his destruction and splintering of the Republican party over the coming 4 years and then run again in 2024. The Republicans then have two choices. They either take him as their candidate or allow him to run at the head of his so called Patriot party. On the Republican ticket he will continue the destruction of the GOP and of America. On his own ticket, he will split the vote on the right and allow the Dems to sail through the rift between these two parties.
Clearly, if we completely ignore the fact that another 4 years of Trump would be a disaster for America, it is in the interest of the Dems to acquit Trump.
