Before impeaching Donald Trump, people like Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine suggested putting forward a censure resolution instead.

It wouldn’t have worked.

I doubted it would at the time, given Trump’s rabid so-no-evil minions in Congress, but now I’m sure of it. Even though it’s toothless, designed to chasten and embarrass the person being censured, Trumpists would doubtless have viewed it as a “purely political” exercise.

They should know. In January, Arizona Republicans censured Cindy McCain, GOP Gov. Doug Ducey, former Sen. Jeff Flake, for either opposing or not being blindly obedient to Trump. Wyoming Republicans censured Liz Cheney, the House’s No. 3 Republican, for voting to impeach Trump. Sixty-one Republicans voted to strip Cheney of her leadership position, while just 11 favored revoking QAnon nutjob Marjorie Taylor Greene’s committee assignments.

Yep. Purely. Political.

Meanwhile, Republicans in Nebraska have talked about censuring Sen. Ben Sasse, a vocal Trump critic, especially since the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol. And the Louisiana GOP said it was “profoundly disappointed” in Sen. Bill Cassidy’s vote to even consider the Trump impeachment trial constitutional, not even waiting to hear how he’d vote on the actual question of Trump’s incitement.

Censure was created as an alternative to expulsion that’s designed admonish an elected official for ethical misconduct or violations of a legislature’s rules. And that’s exactly how Democrats in favor of such a move would have used it to rebuke Trump. If sicking a violent mob on the Capitol isn’t an ethical violation, it’s hard to say what is.

That’s not political, but the way Republicans have been using censure is. They’ve been censuring people for votes of conscience taken under the regular rules of Congress, and for expressing opinions that deviate from their own. You want to talk about “cancel culture”? About attempting to stifle free speech? You won’t find better examples.

It’s no shock that politicians are hypocrites, nor is a surprise that Republicans are the most egregious offenders. And it’s not startling, either, that censure is nothing more than an empty slap on the wrist. But confirmation is always welcome, and Republicans have provided that confirmation yet again.

Stephen H. Provost is a former journalist and author of three books about the Trump presidency, available on Amazon at www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08RC7L8X1.