Ixnay on Impeachmentay
I dunno; we are not happy the rethugs in Congress appear to have no moral compass. Must we be like them?
By Jim Newell
Ixnay on Impeachmentay
Democratic leaders are trying hard to keep a lid on impeachment talk.
Nov. 03, 2017 Cover Story
On Oct. 11, Democratic Rep. Al Green took to the House floor and called on his colleagues to impeach President Trump. Green’s 15-page resolution didn’t allege a specific crime—articles of impeachment don’t need to—but it did include a bill of particulars that almost any Democrat could get behind, citing Trump’s “record of inciting white supremacy, sexism, bigotry, hatred, xenophobia, race-baiting, and racism by demeaning, defaming, disrespecting, and disparaging women and certain minorities.” As a privileged resolution, Green could have forced a vote—something that Republicans, smelling an opportunity to divide Democrats, would have been pleased to offer. But when the time came, Green didn’t appear on the floor to formally offer his resolution.
That came as a relief to the rest of the Democratic caucus, and particularly to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who had spoken to Green that morning.
For all their talk about Trump’s transgressions, Democratic leaders are trying desperately to keep a lid on the idea of actually impeaching him.
To party leaders, strategists, and Democrats in competitive districts, talk of impeachment only serves as a distraction heading into an election cycle in which the party hopes to retake the House and, if the stars align perfectly, maybe even the Senate. With a historically unpopular president and polls trending in their favor, the mere mention of the I-word sends Democratic leaders scrambling to dismiss it as “premature”—lest they hand a rallying cry to Trump’s defenders.
That pragmatic approach has created an irreconcilable tension with a restive base that tends to view impeachment in moral, historical terms. Activist groups like Indivisible and MoveOn called on Congress to start the impeachment process in June, and the issue seems likely to pick up steam as indictments from special counsel Robert Mueller roll in. The billionaire investor Tom Steyer collected more than 1 million signatures in support of impeachment in just two weeks after he launched a $10 million campaign to push the issue.
Steyer, the Democratic Party’s biggest donor, was prompted to act, he told me in an interview, by the party’s “silence on this issue, when it was obvious to the majority or Americans—or certainly the overwhelming majority of Democrats—that this guy has to go.”
“As far as I’m concerned, people are pretending this isn’t a crisis, people are pretending that we’re not out of control, people are pretending that we don’t have a dysfunctional federal government,” Steyer said. “But all those things are actually true.”
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“Right now, this tax fight is Armageddon,” a senior Democratic House aide told me. “Between the tax fight and what we need to be talking about in terms of our agenda, those are the two things members should be talking about. We can’t afford anything else.”
For individual members, the politics are tricky. Support impeachment and you risk alienating moderates. Oppose impeachment and you risk inviting a primary challenge from the left, like the one currently being waged against California Sen. Dianne Feinstein.
more...
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2017/11/why-democratic-leaders-dont-want-to-talk-about-impeachment.html
= new reply since forum marked as read
Except deplorables aren't winnable at all; they are locked inside the bubble of idiocy forever.
