Stop the Impeachment Daydreams!
May 30, 2017
Democrats who prattle endlessly about impeaching President Trump are deluding themselves and damaging the country. Not only do they lack convincing evidence of impeachable “high crimes and misdemeanors” but they also possess no understanding of the lessons of history.
Only three presidents have confronted serious impeachment proceedings: Andrew Johnson, Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton. In each of those situations, the embattled president faced a hostile Congress, with House and Senate overwhelmingly controlled by the opposition party. In none of those cases, did the accused president lose the support of his own party’s representatives. Even Nixon, who eventually resigned from office, retained backing from a majority of Republicans when the Judiciary Committee took its famous vote.
To remove Trump from office would take every single Democratic Senator, plus 19 of the 52 Republicans--an impossibility in an age of partisanship. Instead of indulging toxic impeachment daydreams, Democrats should wake up and try to work with the president, whatever his imperfections.