The flawed argument against impeachment

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6. surely the severity of the charges matters.

the impeachment circus against clinton was widely seen as a petty partisan stunt to tarnish the reputation of a rather popular president.

it didn't help that republicans seemed to be playing a gotcha game, searching high and low for an excuse to impeach before settling on something that most people saw as a private matter and not a crime of office.


democrats did fine when nixon resigned, and while obviously one could argue that the result being a successful removal of a president matters, i think what matters is that what nixon did was widely seen as crimes of office and he couldn't pretend he wasn't guilty.


i think democrats are wise not to seem too eager to impeach. it works better to let the evidence come out first and avoid the perception that we wanted impeachment no matter what and were searching for an excuse. hopefully, with more indictments and reports from mueller, the perception is that donnie has committed crimes of office. at that point, impeachment will be seen as appropriate and even if republicans protect him, we won't be seen abusing *our* power for a political stunt.


for now, i'm on the fence as to whether it's a net political plus or not to impeach. i think it really does depend on how mueller's activities play out. i think we need to see something a bit more damning than what we've seen so far before the public is ready to accept that he needs to be impeached. but i think it's entirely possible that mueller has the goods on him.