What can the impeachment vote tell us about the forces at work as our elected representatives grapple with key issues? …
Republicans possessed of extensive Senate experience claimed a secret ballot would have produced just ten votes to acquit, suggesting at least 33 sacrificed their own judgment to something.
Without access to the private thoughts of each senator, we can’t know which factors determined their vote. In fact, they may not know themselves exactly why they voted the way they did.
But we can catch a glimmer of the interplay of three powerful forces: partisanship, constituent preferences, and individual judgment. CONTINUED
Mark Mellman (Mellman Group), The Hill