I think you are missing the point. If Trump truly violated the law, then he should have been brought to Federal Court and prosecuted with due process. If the Federal Court convicted him, since he is no longer President, he could have been sentenced to jail. If the court disagreed with you, which I think it would have, then he would have been acquitted. Democrats did not trust their case to the Federal Courts pretty simple.

So I agree everyone should be equal under the law... and once Trump left office the way we handle civilian alleged crimes is in the Federal court system not in the Senate. Trump was not treated "equally" but got special treatment... impeached while President in less than 24 hours with no witnesses or discovery and then had the impeachment held until he left office and then tried in the Senate as a "private citizen". The purpose of impeachment is simple remove the President from office, and remove the protections that go with the office. It is not to prosecute crimes in the Congress. The whole separation of powers thing...

McConnell actually put the country ahead of party. He could have leaned on every Republican to tow the line, but he did not and has not. If you have observed McConnell over the years, he is an absolute believer in the traditions and processes that define the rules of the Senate. Those rules have stood in good stead by promoting bipartisanship. The whole 60% requirement makes it virtually impossible for a simple majority to ram stuff through Congress.

Now Democrats want to challenge that rule and if they do, this country will begin to swing left and right like a pendulum. There is nothing cowardly about standing up for the Constitution, free speech, and due process. Those are core values of this nation. McConnell risked his seat against a legitimate contender standing up for the traditions of the Senate.

But think for a minute which party is attacking almost all those core processes and procedures that have kept this country centered? Biden said any President that resorts to executive orders is behaving as a dictator and then in his first two weeks in office issued more executive orders than Bush, Obama, and Trump combined!

Separate ideology from process. Process insures stability and should not vary no matter who is in power. Ideology is simply what people believe. Forcing beliefs by ignoring process is dangerous.

Personally, I think Federalism is as much to blame as anything. If New York, California, and Illinois want to run their states into the ground, they should have that right. But don't force the country to follow them down their ratholes...

For example, find me anywhere in the Constitution where a Federal minimum wage is a power assigned to the Federal government. I believe in minimum wages at the state and county level and we have those throughout the country now. But why should 1.4 million people lose their jobs (the CBO estimate) and potentially sink into poverty to satisfy an ideological concept.

So expect the Republicans to oppose any bill that plays with the Federal minimum wage... not because they oppose minimum wage, but rather it simply is not the Federal government's job to set wages.