To impeach, or not to impeach

[David Horn]

(11-09-2019, 07:34 PM)Eric the Green Wrote:

(11-09-2019, 07:11 PM)Anthony Wrote: The impeachment campaign is making it less likely for the Democrats to win in 2020.  It's a dead turn-off for swing voters, who are as powerful as ever.

Besides, to quote a line from Godfather 2, there will be no way, Michael - no way that 20 Republicans will cross the aisle and vote to remove Trump from office.

David's point is well-taken. The Democrats would lose even more voters if they refuse to take action on such violations of ethics in office. To do so is to admit that Trump can get away with anything, which sets a bad precedent to say the least. It is their duty to impeach, whether some voters like it or not.

Impeachment may be shoring up Trump's base in white-majority-low education-working class states including crucial PA, WI and MI. He seems to have been further behind there before now. If this sticks, then the Democrats are in trouble. This may be temporary though, as voters there remember again how little Trump has helped them and how poorly he has behaved in office. It will only take about 44,000 Trump voters in those 3 states to change their mind, or that combined with more young and ethnic Democrats thinking they can better relate to the Democratic candidate in 2020 than they did to Hillary, and coming out instead of staying home.

Trump likely only needs 46% of the national popular vote to win again. Knowing this, no Democrat can be complacent that Mussolini won't deceive the voters again with his powerful personality (and his 9-4 score that's better than all other candidates).

I was around for the Nixon debacle, and this smells a lot like that -- only worse.  Nothing will alter the mindset of the True Trumpers; independents, on the other hand, are in play.  Do we know with any degree of certainly, how that group will split if the impeachment goes through?  No we don't.  We can be almost certain that the GOP-controlled Senate will give him a free pass.  At that point, it's up to the Dems to make that a campaign issue against the entire party.  

Winning the Presidency is inadequate this time.  It's all-in or nothing.