You surely saw the screaming headlines Wednesday night.
โPresident Trump Impeached by the House in Historic Rebukeโ
โDonald Trump is the Third President to Face a Trial in the Senateโ
โTrump impeachment is a monumental victory against blatant corruption and for democracyโ
And sensed Americaโs collective response: yawn.
To paraphrase Churchill, never in the field of human conflict has so much blather by so many mattered to so few.
It speaks volumes that a procedural statement closing eight hours of bipartisan babble preceding the House vote โ โall time for general debate has expiredโ โ actually earned an ovation.
We the People second the emotion. Because any interest we had in impeachment expired long ago.
How so? Let me count the ways.
One: House Democratsโ articles of impeachment detailed zero impeachable offenses. Speaker Pelosi, et. al., promised โbriberyโ and โobstruction of justiceโ โ real, actual crimes. The ultimate charges: โabuse of powerโ and โobstruction of Congress.โ
Friends, if โabuse of powerโ and โobstruction of Congressโ are authentic โhigh crimes and misdemeanors,โ roughly 90% of that bodyโs members are headed up the river.
Two: the underwhelming players and witnesses forwarded in hearings. Striped-pants diplomats. Self-interested CYAers. Stuffed-shirt professors. Sanctimonious staffers. No John Deans, G. Gordon Liddys, Monica Lewinskys or even Linda Tripps here.
The Democratsโ hoped-for โbombshellโ testimony โ well, bombed.
The mysterious โwhistleblowerโ briefly merited some interest โ until his cover was blown, revealing him to be a political hack. At which point House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff (Pencil Neck-CA) switched to a game of โhide-the-ballโ on his identity.
Three: lack of suspense. It soon became a foregone conclusion how this whole caper was going down.
Democrats in the House would vote impeachment. Republicans in the Senate will acquit. Zzzzz.
Bringing us to four: partisanship. The conclusion became so foregone because the impeachment process became so transparently political. No need to go into how often and openly the Democrats manipulated closed-door investigations, hearings, report-writing, and, of course, the media. Or how completely the outraged Republicans closed ranks around President Trump. Folks caught on.
Fifth and last, but in no way, shape or form least: impeachment fatigue. Last year, polls noted how seven in 10 Americans were just plain tired of the news.
Today, theyโre sick to death of impeachment in the news.
How can you tell? Read the polls. Support for impeachment falling โ even among Democrats. Approval ratings for the President rising. Thatโs not a sign of a populace taking seriously a โhistoricโ step that, if successful, could remove a sitting Commander-in-Chief.
Itโs not just impeachment. Itโs endless predictions that โthis is itโ and โthe handwriting is on the wallโ for the president โ and from the Sean Hannity/John Solomon crowd, for his antagonists.
Endless charges, countercharges, claims of vindication and victimization.
Endless reports. Mueller. The Inspector General times two. Even the FISA courtโs recent rebuke of the FBI.
And seemingly, endless investigations and investigations of investigations โ e.g., John Durhamโs ongoing probe.
After a while, even the most hooked political junkie needs to call it quits and switch from hours of breathless cable talking heads to binge-watching The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (or, for the more high-falutinโ among us, The Crown.)
Fortunately, sure-footed Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has correctly measured the public mood. The Kentucky Republican has not only scotched President Trumpโs killer instincts to use a drawn-out Senate trial to, perhaps, expose Hunter Biden and out the whistleblower. He also deftly batted down Minority Leader Chuck Schumerโs (D-N.Y.) attempted Hail Mary: hauling in senior members of the White House command, hoping they will spill something sufficiently embarrassing to peel off a few Republican votes.
McConnellโs vision of a short, sweet procedure consisting of simple presentations by representatives of both sides, followed immediately by an acquittal vote, seems just the ticket.
After all, the President has already vented his considerable spleen over the process with his inimitable missive โ perhaps better described as a missile โ to the Speaker. (A clear Perry- Mason-meets-Atilla-the-Hun committee effort, combining serious legal language and analysis โ โthe Articles of Impeachment introduced by the House Judiciary Committee are not recognizable under any standard of Constitutional theory, interpretation, or jurisprudenceโ โ with familiar Trumpian tropes โ โthe paragraph in question was perfect.โ)
The faster the Senate can drive a stake through the heart of an impeachment process that never should have seen the light of day, the sooner the rest of us can get back to Midge Maisel. Her act, at least, can hold our attention for five minutes.
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Well said. It is, however, disturbing that a large group of people in this country seem to have such little regard for rational analysis. People like Mad Maxine Waters are actually elected to office. The leftist agenda is to demonize everything they disagree with. That’s always been the leftist way.