@hightor,
hightor wrote:
Quote:Not as embarrassing as their undying belief that this impeachment guff will achieve anything positive for the dems.
I really doubt that the Democrats believe that this process is doing anything positive for
them.
I'll quickly concede that knowing anyone's real inner intentions with respect to this or any issue is not a possibility - we can only speculate. In the case of the Trump impeachment the evidence is mixed. Pelosi some time ago expressed the view that Impeachment, if it occurs, must have a clear criminal foundation and there must be a level of bipartisan support for it. Now they are proceeding without meeting either condition . What changed?
Two distinct events followed: (1) Poll measured support for the left wing Democrat Nomination contenders started falling and Biden, still without a commanding lead, began to appear as a less and less effective candidate. Forecasts of an expected Trump victory in the election became more frequent and visible. (2) The events attending the Trump call with the newly elected Ukrainian President surfaced, in what still appears to have been an organized inside job with significant involvement by Rep. Schiff. (Presidents, by the way have the Constitutional obligation to conduct our Foreign relations - not the bureaucrats in the State & Intelligence Departments. History is replete with deals between States and their leaders - it is the norm, not the exception.)
Suddenly the Schiff/Nadler continuing investigations were reenergized, now on a new issue, unrelated to the failed Mueller investigation and all that attended and followed it. Meanwhile Speaker Pelosi suddenly changed her former tune with respect to her standards for proceeding with impeachment.
The result to date is an impeachment indictment that, unlike all previous impeachments, is without a clear criminal charge, and with virtually no chance of being approved in the Senate. Polls so far indicate only minority support for it among voters generally and fairly decisive opposition to it among self-identified independent voters - those who count most in election predictions.
Overall I find it hard to detect any rational basis for this ongoing action either in the political ambitions of Democrats, or the interests of the country (our economy is doing very well, even amidst a worldwide slowdown, and serious, long-standing issues on trade, immigration and regulatory reform are at last being addressed - albeit with little help or collaboration from Democrats).
One could argue that the only remaining rational motive is an altruistic conviction on the part of Democrats that Trump really represents a serious threat to our institutions and must be removed at any cost. That, I suspect is close to your view. I find it very hard to buy that one, particularly given the sometimes irrational desperation that has long attended Democrat efforts to find any basis to impeach Trump, going back to his inauguration, and the many irregularities, and sometimes flatly illegal behaviors, that have attended it - not least the many very partisan violations of past procedure, misrepresentations and false claims that attended the recent Schiff/Nadler hearings. There's not much in the way of an altruistic defense of our constitution & institutions in that. It is clear that Democrats had long ago convicted Trump in their minds and have spent the last three years merely looking for a pretext for doing so. Now, with a remarkably weak case they are going forward.
I suspect Democrats lost hope of winning the election and resolved on desperate measures to get rid of or discredit Trump . Unfortunately, for them, they have become carried away by their own preconceptions and momentum. As things turned out they don't have much of a case and so far Poll results indicate more harm than benefit for them as a result
Looks like TDS to me.
