Were The Impeachment Hearings Worth It?
And why all of a sudden does the success or failure lie with the reaction of Republicans in Congress and not the American people?
Yes, we understand the goal of impeachment is the removal of the Chief Executive. So Trump’s ouster is the “win” here if you’re looking at it only as a zero sum game. And in order for that to happen in short order, one measure would be the establishment of at least a trickle of bipartisan support toward that end.
But that wasn’t and isn’t the only reason to do it. Yet a very strange thing is happening in a large number of stories we’re seeing since the hearings wrapped last week: Trump is being in effect already declared “the winner”. Like this one in the New Yorker headlined “The Awful Truth About Impeachment”, and subtitled “Facts be damned is Trump’s approach, and it’s working.” Or this, in the Washington Post headlined “Trump’s GOP support hardens despite damning impeachment testimony”. And oh so many others…
The Post story isn’t wrong, it’s just what did they expect, really? Another Watergate, where irrefutable evidence of a President’s corruption openly eroded his support within the party? That Republicans would act in good faith? We’re not living in those days. There’s no simple outcome to this. And also…
