The Democrats are not impeaching Donald Trump.
There is not an impeachment inquiry underway, there are not impeachment proceedings in play. There are no articles of impeachment. Period.
There should be. But there aren’t.
Democrats are playing a dangerous game right now and I feel like it’s going to come back and bite them on the rear. Many in the base, along with nonaligned voters – including myself – believe the time has long passed for Trump to be impeached. The Mueller Report showed him making various attempts to obstruct justice and divert attention away from his actions. The bar has been more than met for a high crime (which is whatever Congress says it is).
The problem is that Democratic leaders do not want to impeach Trump. Led by Speaker Pelosi, but also including committee chairs and other high-ranking leaders, the intent is clear: To ride out the next year and have voters kick Trump out in November 2020.
But there’s still impeachment hanging over everything. So, as they have so often done in the past, Democrats are trying to be cute.
They have started labeling things like their court filings as “impeachment” related and have referred to some congressional hearings as relating to an impeachment inquiry.
This isn’t true. Democrats are not impeaching Trump.
What this message is designed to do is have the faction of the left who won’t shut up about impeachment (hello again) shut up and let the House move on with its business. Instead, it just makes the Democrats look weaker than they already do for not pursuing impeachment.
It’s a double whammy.
The argument against pursuing impeachment are extremely bad. Trump is in violation of the Constitution and leaders in Congress should use the Constitutional remedy for dealing with the problem. In all likelihood Senate Republicans will give Trump a pass on any impeachment inquiry. So what?
The Republicans are also opposing all the legislation to come out of the House on a host of important issues – guns, election integrity, and beyond – why, all of a sudden, is Mitch McConnell’s veto such a stumbling block?
Additionally, Republicans are already running on impeachment. The argument that a Senate dismissal will “hand impeachment as an issue” to Trump is bunk. Already the GOP mentions impeachment constantly. In their narrative, Democrats are persecuting poor Trump and pursuing impeachment at all costs above everything else. It is not an argument tethered to reality but Democrats have decided (as usual) to operate from a defensive crouch in response to something Republicans are doing.
They should stand for something, anything, and in impeachment they would be standing for the right thing.
Why would you avoid impeachment because the man who has spent two weeks insisting that a hurricane was going to hit Alabama when it wasn’t will have a tantrum?
He has a tantrum about any and everything. So give him a real thing to be the whiny, petulant little child he is. Impeach him and lay his crimes and misdeeds out for the American people. Impeach him and show voters of all stripes that Democrats can stand for something other than being afraid of the big bad Republicans.
Stop playing impeachment kabuki theater. Do your jobs. You swore an oath to protect and defend the Constitution. So do it.
One of the first political bloggers in the world, Oliver Willis has operated OliverWillis.com since 2000. Contributor at Media Matters for America and The American Independent. Follow on Twitter at @owillis. Full bio.
First off, you agree that, without significant Republican support, impeachment is going nowhere? That it’s an expensive, distracting, exercise in futility? It’s a gesture of no impact?
A failed impeachment effort will bring 24/7 Trumpian crowing, claims of vindication, and attacks on his “persecutors”.
But impeachment itself is a very bad idea.
First. President Pence. Impeachment gets you President Pence. I don’t know if the impeachamaniacs forget this little point or ignore it entirely. Impeaching Trump will not bring unicorns and rainbows. It will bring Vanilla Spock.
Impeachment will do little to fix any of the problems of America. That’s because Trump isn’t the cause of those problems; he’s an effect. The problems are the Republicans who hamstrung President Obama at every turn. The problem is Mitch McConnell who literally refused to let the Senate do it’s job to hurt America lest President Obama get the credit. The problem is RW Pundits who espouse white nationalism. The problem is Bill Barr who is willing to turn the Department of Justice into Trump’s enforcers.
Now Trump himself isn’t a part of this. In fact Trump’s incompetence and inconsistency is actually a benefit. He can’t remain consistent long enough do crushing damage to the US or the world. Take, for example, his Muslim Ban. It took three tries to get it right and in doing so exposed the underlying racism of the concept. Can you see President Pence doctoring a weather map with a sharpie? No, Pence would never set himself up for such ridicule.
Trump’s ego allows him to be manipulated by any number of world despots. Would Pence talk about the “beautiful letters” he gets from Kim Jong-un? Would Pence hold off on attacking Iran?
Then there’s the issue of whom you want leading the Republican Party next November. Do you want Trump, who is currently arguing crowd size with Elizabeth Warren? Trump who can’t deliver a prepared speech with any consistency? Trump who slurs his words and forgets names? Trump who has trouble speaking in coherent sentences? Trump who’s ego leads him into any number of absurd quagmires?
Or Pence?
No, impeaching Trump and letting the Republicans ignore him in the elections is a remarkable bad idea. I’m surprised more people haven’t noticed and are so eager to impeach.