Yes, Trump’s active behavior was indecorous. Condemnable. But what if it had been less nefarious? Let’s put Trump aside because he is a flawed man. What if a president failed to act in response to a violent attack on the Capitol, and also failed to delegate powers to the vice president and others who were more willing or able to respond, because that president was plagued by a terrible family problem, or was just in over his head and froze in the moment of crisis?

Such a president would be just as derelict, and thus just as impeachable, as Trump was. Constitutionally speaking, there are some things only a president can do. Indeed, the committee’s understandable praise of Vice President Pence’s decisiveness in filling the void and getting the armed forces dispatched tiptoed quietly around the inconvenient fact that Pence had no legal authority to take such actions.

I’m not knocking Pence. Trump, particularly in his post-2020-election phase, was a shock to the system, and in America, we can thank God that able people willing to confront danger tend to step into the breach when we face a moment of truth. My point is that dereliction of duty is heinous, standing out even among impeachable offenses, because of the awesome, unparalleled national-security responsibilities that the president alone shoulders. Presidential dereliction is dereliction like no other.