In a new piece from Salon, author Amanda Marcotte does a deep dive on the political prospects of impeaching Donald Trump, weighing both Nancy Pelosi’s reticence to do so and the ostensible reason that the Speaker has been refraining: It sure seems like Donald Trump wants to see the Democrats try.
It’s hard, in fact, to think of a better reason to not do something than that it’s something Donald Trump wants. If he wanted me to vacation on Maui, I’d probably think there was a sudden increase in sharks in the area and head for Cincinnati instead.
So do we fault Nancy for not wanting to give in to the temptation to drag Trump through the impeachment process? After all, you know she’s had pleasant dreams about the Congressional investigations that would ensue upon initiating proceedings: The tax returns, the opportunity to make longtime defenders like Devin Nunes or Mark Meadows look like assholes for believing (or at least parroting) patently false narratives, easily debunked after a simple phone records subpoena or cross-examination of Ivanka by, say, Maxine Waters.
Marcotte argues that the fact that Trump seems to be spoiling for a fight — and looking to make himself out to be the hero of the story, should the Senate predictably fail to convict on a Democratic-led House impeachment — isn’t near enough reason to withhold charges. The real thing, she says, that Trump is after, the thing he’s hopelessly addicted to, is good old-fashioned drama, and that doesn’t require him to be the good guy. More importantly, Trump isn’t likely smart enough to make himself look like the good guy in the wake of what is sure to be a slew of damning revelations during the course of an impeachment trial.
And besides, Marcotte adds, none of the “consequences” that the administration has thus far faced have done anything whatsoever. Did you even know until you read this sentence right here that the House voted to hold the Attorney General in contempt of Congress today? That’s right, you didn’t because they’re ignoring it. The only news is about Trump’s freakouts, how he responds to developments among the Democrats — hell, he brings up being held accountable when no one else is even talking about it.
He’s clearly not scared anyone’s actually going to.
The only way that accountability gets any traction is if Americans can finally be made to understand the gravity of the situation: This isn’t just Trump governing for the rich, letting people bring elephant trophies into America, and stealing Puerto Rico’s recovery money for a wall no one but the most racist faction of the country wants — this is the dismantling of American democracy as we know it, and it is total disdain for the rule of law.
And since nobody seems to be clamoring to sit down and read all 400+ pages of the Mueller report, perhaps a committee hearing room with members of Congress quoting it out loud to Trump’s face will work.
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