Kind of conflicted about dems bringing up impeachment because I'm 99% sure the Republican Senate wouldn't convict Trump of any crimes. And then without any sort of looking threat he would only get worse and his fans would use that to show he hasn't done anything wrong. It just doesn't seem like there can be a win here, but I may just be feeling hopeless.
I feel ya. I think it has to happen, and I have a few thoughts about why:
1) It’s not the 90s. The impeachment of Clinton was a huge failure because there was no public appetite for it, and it was plainly seen by the political center as a partisan abuse of power. Over 50% of the electorate knows that Trump is breaking the law, has obstructed justice, and is creating a precedent that will destroy our government if he is not stopped. In other words: there is no way this ends the way it did in the 90s, because the world and the circumstances are totally different.Â
2) There is no way the Senate convicts him, because he is not an anomaly in the Republican party. He is the ideal dream of the Republican party. He really could shoot someone in the face and get away with it. So what? He’s getting away with it now, and he’s causing immeasurable harm to our government, our system, and our standing on the world stage. He is exactly who the framers feared when they wrote our Constitution and allowed for impeachment. If he is NOT subjected to an impeachment inquiry, we will never have a president who is bound by the law again. If he is not held accountable (and if the people inside his administration who are helping his lawlessness are not held accountable) we will never have a president again. We will have a King.Â
3) Impeachment is risky, because when the Republicans in the Senate vote as a bloc to protect him, he’ll rant and rave about how he was exonerated. So what? he’s doing that anyway, and nobody who isn’t already all-in with him is listening. There is no center to grab, anymore. Everyone who is going to vote has chosen sides, and there are more of us who want him held accountable than there are of them. To refuse to impeach, in light of all the daily lawbreaking and abuses of power, after a mid-term election gave a clear and undeniable mandate to Democrats to check this wanna-be autocrat, is to tell Democratic voters that they don’t matter, because Democrats in leadership are more afraid of losing some power than they are willing to use the power the people gave them.
