Let’s not dismiss the Senate impeachment trial as a “kangaroo court.” That’s an insult to kangaroos, who lately have been suffering enough.

President Trump and Senate Republican leaders seem to be planning a rushed, sham trial with no witnesses and limited evidence. This reminds me of a trial I once monitored of a Chinese journalist in Beijing: The proceedings were held in a majestic court building with high ceilings, plush courtrooms, crisp microphones and attentive security officers, all overseen by solemn judges — everything a justice system might want, except justice.

What’s at stake in this trial is the basic idea that America’s leader is accountable for misconduct. Without that concept, we may have a grand Senate chamber and eloquent speeches, but our democracy rings hollow. Without that principle of equality before the law, our grand Senate under Mitch McConnell simply becomes an American analogue of China’s rubber-stamp National People’s Congress.

McConnell’s grim determination to see no evidence and hear no witnesses is particularly hypocritical because in 1999, during the impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton, he did favor allowing witnesses. “It’s certainly not unusual to have a witness in an impeachment trial,” he said then.