It’s a hot summer day in 2060, and recently retired Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri is having trouble explaining things to his great-grandchild. As they sit on the porch swing sipping sweet lemonade, the octogenarian who recently opted not to seek an eighth term, can’t seem to find the right words. “Wait,” he was asked, “you had a chance to remove Donald Trump from power in 2020 and you didn’t take it?”

Some things just can’t be explained. Frankly, Hawley is just grateful that this precocious child doesn’t know enough to ask about the rules of the impeachment trial. But nothing comes to mind that might be a satisfactory response. “I was a coward” seems uninspiring, and “I was a fool” isn’t much better. Offering a defense on the merits is out of the question, so Hawley feigns the halting memory of an old man and stutters about it being a long time ago and a different world.

I hope this at least somewhat resembles the future.

The Republicans should rue their decisions in January and February 2020 for the rest of their lives, and suffer shame and alienation from their friends, colleagues and families. I have faith that Donald Trump will make it so, as there’s no chance that he’ll become a better president or that the fallout from his trial won’t have lasting negative consequences for the nation, and probably the world.

But I also hope the worst won’t happen and Hawley will actually have grandchildren who are growing up in a society civilized enough to remember its history and free enough to question past leaders.

Things will go badly now, and the only question is how catastrophic it will get.