Posted on 11/30/2019 4:21:35 AM PST by Kaslin
Impeachment is a political process. No sentient being, after all, believes that Adam Schiff or Nancy Pelosi are good-faith guardians of constitutional order. And judging the process strictly on political grounds, it hasn't been a success for Democrats.
For one thing, impeachment, if it happens, will effectively end up being a partisan censure of the president. Democrats haven't gotten any closer to convincing a single Senate Republican to remove the president. Certainly not Mitch McConnell, who says there will be a quick trial. Not even Mitt Romney, who, at this point, is aptly troubled but uncommitted.
It's highly probable that a Senate trial run by Republicans, with new witnesses and evidence, would further corrode the Democrats' case. Liberals, of course, will pretend that Senate Republicans are members of a reactionary Trump cult, putting party above country, but if there had been incontrovertible proof of "bribery," a number of them would be compelled to act differently. No such evidence was provided. Adding an obstruction article, based on the Mueller Report, would only make the proceedings even more intractably partisan. Yet, the recent push to force Don McGahn to testify suggests Democrats could be headed in that direction.
In any case, what we can look forward to in a Senate trial is more Ukrainian drama. Far from weakening Trump in 2020, the story might end up dragging Joe Biden into a defensive posture. Journalists perfunctorily refer to anything related to Ukrainians or the Bidens as a "conspiracy theory," but it's clear that Hunter Biden was cashing in on his father's influence, and it's still unclear what Joe Biden did about it. Republicans have already requested transcripts of conversations between Biden and then-Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko over the vice president's requests to fire Viktor Shokin. It's going to become a difficult story to ignore.
So what is the upside? At first, Democrats claimed that polls were irrelevant because impeachment was a moral and patriotic imperative. Once national support spiked, numbers suddenly mattered very much, and the usual suspects couldn't stop talking about them. What most polls now confirm is that while Americans were paying attention to the breathless media coverage, public support for the inquiry is at best stagnant and probably declining.
The FiveThirtyEight average for support among independents topped out at 47.7% in late October. It sank to 41% during the hearings. Last week's Politico/Morning Consult poll found that voter opposition to the impeachment inquiry is at its highest point since it started asking the question: "Today, 47 percent of independents oppose the impeachment inquiry, compared to 37 percent who said the same one week ago." Put another way, more people -- not just independents, but everyone -- viewed the construction of Trump's wall on the Mexican border as a higher priority than impeaching Trump.
Even the best poll for impeachers, one conducted by CNN, saw no change during the dramatic hearings. The Morning Consult poll "didn't do much to move the needle," and still finds support below where it was before the hearings. Will support for impeachment miraculously surge upward in places such as Wisconsin as the election approaches? It seems unlikely.
In a deep dive into recent polls for Vanity Fair, Ken Stern summarizes the perspective of independents: "Impeachment reflects the agenda of the political establishment and the media," and represents "a continuation of the partisan bickering and media excess that began even before his inauguration."
Democrats and the media have covered every development of the many investigations into Trump, tending into histrionics. That has, in many ways, obscured legitimate criticism of the president. By constantly overpromising and underdelivering, Democrats have guaranteed not only skepticism but apathy from voters outside their own tribe.
Take Schiff, who once claimed to be privy to hard evidence -- which never materialized -- of a criminal conspiracy between Trump and the Russian government. In his closing statement in the impeachment hearings, he argued that Trump's actions toward Ukraine go "beyond anything Nixon did." At first, Democrats set out to prove a quid pro quo charge, which has since been revised to "bribery." The rationale was that it was a criminal concept that Americans could more easily grasp. Indeed, most people understand what constitutes "bribery," but Schiff couldn't provide the evidence for it. Instead, he offered a slew of witnesses that depicted a self-serving, volatile and impulsive Trump.
None of that is a surprise to anyone who's ever heard the president speak.
If lame-duck Republicans such as Will Hurd, who hasn't been afraid to be critical of the president, saw no "compelling, overwhelmingly clear, and unambiguous" evidence of "bribery or extortion," who are you convincing exactly? To be sure, Hurd may change his mind. It's also possible that vulnerable Democrats will change theirs first. Yesterday, representative Brenda Lawrence, D-Mich., said she favored censuring, not impeaching, Trump: "We are so close to an election. I will tell you, sitting here knowing how divided this country is, I don't see the value of taking him out of office."
Today, she backpedaled. But she may have stumbled onto a solution. If Democrats back out of impeachment, they will be scorned by the base as a bunch of simpering cowards. But the anger of the resistance fighter can never be satiated anyway. With censure, Democrats would be able to continue to condemn Trump without putting their vulnerable members in danger.
Here is a pertinent question someone might want to poll: "Based on everything you have seen, read, or heard about the allegations against President Trump and Ukraine, which of the following is the best way for Democrats to proceed? 1) Impeach. 2) Censure. 3) Nothing." I suspect there's a good chance Lawrence's position would be the most popular.
Yes, it is backfiring so hard that the backfire is giving each and every Democrat an enema, an enema which predictably causes many Dems to have a much more horrid manifestation of Trump Derangement Syndrome, and many of those cases will likely become fatal.
The worst of these afflicted Dems collapse in seizure and empty their bowels and bladders while kicking and screaming. Massive doses of sedation work only temporarily.
I am beginning to think that Trump Derangemnent Syndrome is incurable. They shoot horses don’t they?
And if the Senate kicks it back to the house and says “try again, this time with due process observed before you try to send it here” they will go bonkers even more.
And if the Senate kicks it back to the house and says “try again, this time with due process observed before you try to send it here” they will go bonkers even more.>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
I wonder what they will look like then? They are already looking pretty crazy, with eyes bugging out, sweat popping out on their foreheads and faces, and a growling hate filled tension in their voices.Maybe they are rehearsing for the Trump Derangement Syndrome Zombie Apocalypse?
None of that is a surprise to anyone who's ever heard the president speak.
How, precisely, is a man that takes $1 in salary "self-serving?"
Impulsive? Maybe. Maybe not. I suspect in the real estate business, oftentimes you have to move fast to close the deal. Trump has been doing real estate for a long time. So he moves fast. He's also very smart. - This does not smack of impulsivity to me.
Volatile? Yeah, I'll give you that one.
'Pod.
I stopped updating the big bottom image around April 2018, but all of them will be called to testify under oath in a Senate trial. It will drag on for months, right through the DemSocRat primaries, and it will be a bloody massacre for the Rats. It could destroy the DemSocRat party, and lead to electoral wipe-outs in both houses of congress, and a landslide victory for Trump.
Throw me in that briar patch!
What 'impeachment'?
We been shown NO evidence for that!
All we get is a bunch of talking heads INQUIRING about dumb stuff!
Tuco says, "If you're gonna shoot; shoot: don't talk!"
They’re dreaming.
Nanzi musta stayed up all night concocting the nowhere-impeachment charges:
They were (cue laugh machine here):
<><> obstruction of justice,
<><> abuse of power,
<><> and, the handy dandy national security threat.
D’rats are progressives. Most things backfire on progressives.
Schiff was booked for appearance #235 until Al Green told him Trump was impeachable b/c (drum roll please)
Trump "endangered national security" by trying to track tax dollars from Ukraine into the pockets of DNC bagman Hunter Biden.
And he’s right.
After focus-grouping several other words, the Dems narrowed it down to "national security threat."
How many articles will come out saying “is impeachment back firing on democrats”?
One picture missing. Mark Rich, just for contrast, no narrative necessary.
Oh please. Of course it will. They have done nothing but light exploding cigars since the election.
ooops, that should have read Seth Rich. Never depend on a weak memory.
Prison time for Uranium One?
There seems to be a very large name missing from that graphic!
These pictures do not help me in my struggle to cease being a misanthrope. I know there are wonderful and good people who cannot help being ugly externally.
I believe pure evil comes forth from inside and shows on the Clapper, Brennan, Maxine Waters and Al Green types.
It has been said our faces are like a painter’s canvas after our youth is over, showing the pains of compassion or the laughter or love we express. This explains married couples whom strangers can instantly put together without ever having seen them before.
The late Norman Vincent Peale and Joseph Campbell in their eighties versus Clapper and Brennan now show evidence to me of differences from within.
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