I am not generally a fan of futility, which is why I was sceptical about the wisdom of congressional Democrats pursuing a second impeachment and post-presidential conviction of Donald Trump. The ending of this unprecedented exercise was written before it even began: Once again, Trump would be acquitted by the Senate, where fewer than the requisite 67 would vote to convict him. And once again, it would be safe to predict that the 45th president will claim this is some sort of exoneration. It seemed smarter, and politically safer, to punish Trump some other way – perhaps with a censure, which would require only a majority.