There are pitfalls in not impeaching.

[kentuck]

It may seem politically implausible to impeach at this time but it may not be the safest way to go?

There is always the danger that something very bad may happen with an unstable leader in charge of our country.

There is also the possibility that many voters will give up on politics if Donald Trump is not held accountable in some way.

There is also the possibility that Democrats may lose the next election? It is not guaranteed.

If something terrible does happen in the next year and a half before the election, the Republicans will take no responsibility. All the blame will be placed on the Democrats. It will not be enough to say, "We didn't impeach because all the Republicans would have voted against us." Many Republicans would say, "Of course, I would have voted to convict, but the Democrats never had the courage to bring it up."

Also, it is not written in stone that the Republicans will win if Trump is acquitted in the Senate. That is not a proven assumption.

As we saw yesterday at the NRA, Trump is willing to go to no ends to persuade his followers that there was an attempted "coup" and he prevented it. How do the Democrats counter this for the next year and a half?

[WSSlover]

1. I don't think this country would be any better off if Trump were impeached.

Here's why:

In the event that Donald Trump was impeached, we'd end up with Mike Pence as President, which could be just as dangerous, if not more so than Trump's Presidency. Mike Pence is an ultra-right-wing religious ideologue who'd be even more likely to implement more drastic religious rules, thereby encouraging even more religious strife in this country, and really taking the United States over that cliff!

[kentuck]

5. There is no one in the Republican Party as crazy and unstable as Donald Trump...

...not even Mike Pence.

[Fiendish Thingy]

10. No evidence to support your assertion

While a President Pence might try to implement religious tests and restrictions, they would immediately go to the Supreme Court . What EO's could he enact? Most would have to go to congress, where they would die a deserved death.

Pence, despite enthusiastic support from evangelicals, would be much more defeat able in 2020.

The constitution can't wait just because the VP is bad too...

[CrispyQ]

12. LOL. Pence couldn't even win their primary.

He has the charisma of a corpse. We'll dig out that video of the Con taking his cup off the table & Pence immediately taking his cup off the table. We'll show that video of Pence sitting in the oval office, mute with that zombie look on his face, while Chuck & Nancy eat the Con's lunch.

[lindysalsagal]

2. Dem capitulation. Not good. Better to lay it all on the gop senate.

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

3. BINGO!!!

Bernie & Elizabeth 2020!!!
Welcome to the revolution!!!

[loves_da_dems]

4. We need to go the Watergate route.

Initially most Repukes were against impeachment, then the tapes came out. Right now the most important thing is to get the complete unredacted Mueller report, not the Barr report.Once all the collusion comes out (meeting in Trump tower to get dirt on HRC, with MF45 on the conference call) the Repukes will come around. I bet he'll be gone by Labor day.

Do you thunk there is anyway to install HRC as President? After all, she was the real winner of the election.

[kentuck]

6. A relevant cartoon from JHB

[loves_da_dems]

7. Exactly right

Once Rachel et.al keep pounding this, the Repukes and public will see the light. Gone by Labor day. BTW, I believe he'll resign something like he's accomplished everything he wanted to, MF45 needs a new challenge.

[Fiendish Thingy]

11. Now you've done it...

I'm blaming you if I get any posts hidden for spamming threads with this image...concise, attention grabbing, fantastic!

[Kashkakat v.2.0]

8. Agreed - so maddening to hear "it wont go anywhere" so why bother - sometimes in life there are

things you have to do even though there may not be a clear pay off in sight.

Maybe you have to be old like me to have learned the lesson that sometimes you just go ahead and do things primarily just so you don't have regrets about not having done them.

EX: when my cat was lost, I went through extraordinary measures to hunt for him - including setting up game cameras and feeding stations. I frankly was feeling pretty hopeless, but wanted to know that if I didn't find him, I would at least know I did everything possible so that I wouldn't have regrets. Added bonus - I eventually did find him! I would not have, had I only put up posters and just waited around for people to call me.

The constitution gives us a mechanism to address exactly this sort of situation. There are only about 35% of voters who are the cultists/true believers. That means that the rest are persuade-able, and IMHO a formal impeachment process (ie fact finding and drawing up of charges, not necessarily removal) is the way to go about it. It seems to me that if you can keep pointing back to the words of the CONSTITUTION and using it as a structure or methodology for what you are doing.... it would be harder to argue with that or portray it as a mere "witch hunt" - and again Im talking about reaching the 65% of us who are not cultists.

Maybe you have to be old like me to realize the value of formal processes and customs.

[kentuck]

13. People are generally like water running downhill..

They take the path of least resistance.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

9. I think the biggest danger is that

all during the campaign season Trump and all Republicans will say over and over that he did nothing wrong because the Democrats did nothing after the Mueller report was released.

Jeffrey Toobin said a good year and a half ago that in the end Mueller would release a report to Congress which would probably do nothing at all. So far he's been right.