What is the second impeachment trial for? The simple but untrue answer is that it will determine former President Donald Trump’s culpability for the Jan. 6 ransacking of Congress, punish him, and cleanse our Augean politics at least a little by banning him from future public office.

But everyone knows this won’t happen. It takes two-thirds of senators to convict, which means 17 Republicans would have to join all 50 Democrats. Fat chance. Of the 50 Republican senators, 45 already declared the trial unconstitutional. It’s their view — they may be right — that impeachment exists to remove an incumbent and can’t be used against a chief executive who is already out of office.