Just a thought: Calling & losing a House vote for impeachment would be catastrophic

[ehrnst]

17. So there's nothing to be done other than holding a losing vote on impeachment and

'letting him off the hook?"

Can you tell me what a losing vote to impeach will do to "hold him accountable?"

Can you tell me what impeachment will do to stop him from doing anything that he's doing now?

Especially seeing that there is no way the AG will allow any charges or indictments of any kind to move forward?

Can you describe with "keeping him on the hook" means in concrete terms so far as Congress is concerned? The courts have more recourse to block his actions than congress does.

I understand that anger and frustration often leads to scapegoating, but I'm still not clear on what impeachment - even if we can get a vote to go forward - will accomplish other than forcing Dems in swing districts to vote in a way that could cost them their seat, when there won't be any chance of removing him or stopping him from doing anything he's doing.

It's easy to be mad at congress for "not holding him accountable" if one doesn't really understand what "holding him accountable" actually means.

A quick check on what congress (particularly without the cooperation of the Senate or the POTUS) can do, as per the separation of powers laid out in the constitution, even with impeachment procedings having started from day one of his administration:

Remove him from office? Nope.
Indictment? Arrest? Even after finding evidence of crimes? Nope.
Stop him from tweeting? Nope.
Stop his administration from moving money away from FEMA to ICE? Nope.
Stop him from finding even worse replacements for Bolton/Ross/Mnunchin/Kushner? Nope.
Stop him from staying at his resorts and lining his pockets? Nope.
Stop him from spouting more hate speech? Nope.
Stop him from issuing executive orders rolling back environmental protections? Nope.
Stop him from consulting Stephen Miller on immigration policy? Nope.
Stop him from alienating our allies? Nope.
Stop his administration from moving the Department of Agriculture to Kansas? Nope.
Stop his administration the National Parks for his Fourth of July self-aggrandizement? Nope.
Stop his administration from opening National Parks for oil drilling and removing other protections? Nope.
Stop his administration from purging scientific data from federal websites? Nope.
Stop his administration from doing damage to the ACA by refusing to fund "navigators" and IT for administering it in HHS? Nope.
Stop his administration from underfunding housing and medical treatment for migrant detainees? Nope.
Stop him from contradicting his own intelligence agencies on national threats? Nope.
Force his administration to acknowledge and act on election security measures? Nope.