Shortly after the 2018 midterm elections and the reversal of control in the House of Representatives, the Democrat majority made their policy priorities abundantly clear: impeaching President Trump, first and foremost. The impeachment demands have only gotten stronger as the voice, albeit not number, of the left-flank Liberals has grown in size among the Democratic caucus. However, today in National Review, Columnist Andrew C. McCarthy raised, and answered, an interesting question: Why haven’t these calls for impeachment gone anywhere?
The answer, simply, lies in political posturing.
Most of the impeachment quasi-action is in the Judiciary Committee, chaired by Representative Jerrold Nadler (D., N.Y.). We have to qualify the word “action” because, while Nadler claims to be conducting an impeachment inquiry, his committee has never actually voted to have one.
This reflects the political needle Democrats cannot thread.
Their control of the House hinges on 41 seats that, after the 2018 victory, they hold in Trump-friendly districts. Constituents in those districts do not want Trump impeached. Even most of those opposed to Trump take the sensible position that he should be opposed at the ballot box, and the country spared a rabidly partisan, substantively scant, and inevitably futile removal effort. And because, unlike in 2018, the president will be on the ballot in 2020, the pro-Trump voters will be out in force. An unpopular impeachment push could spell electoral doom.
McCarthy goes on to demonstrate a simple fact; the left flank of the Democratic Party is growing, at least in influence, and is out of step with the everyday American. The average American does not feel that impeachment is a realistic or desirable outcome. The author goes on to raise another point- the current impetus for impeachment is shoddy and haphazard at best:
Amid all this gamesmanship, an important point is easy to miss: This is only a problem because there is no objectively viable impeachment case against Trump.
If Trump had committed some offense that a goodly portion of the country believed was impeachable, then the mere commencement of an impeachment inquiry would not pose a difficult vote for anyone. Virtually all Democrats (and probably more than a smattering of Republicans) would be for it. No person of goodwill would hold it against any lawmaker who voted in favor of calling for an examination of the relevant facts.
The author lays a solid case. Certainly, our elected representatives are sometimes guilty of partisan politics on both sides. But when one of those representatives is guilty of a crime against the public, rarely do others rush to their defense when the culpability is clear. Ultimately, sunlight uncovers wrongdoing, and our system works to ensure justice is carried out swiftly. In this case, it's clear that the Democrats are using impeachment as a political tool for their own gain, rather than to exact justice in the case of an actual crime. Or in the case of the Mueller Report, no evidence of an underlying crime.
The remedy is this:
Republicans should be using every means available to them, from procedural motions, floor and hearing speeches, and media outlets, to force Democrats to vote on convening an impeachment inquiry.