The Democrats now believe they have finally caught their White (or, possibly, orange?) Whale, Donald Trump. Congressional Democrats claim that President Trump violated election rules by asking Ukraine’s president for his assistance in investigating the Biden family’s potentially corrupt dealings in Ukraine during the time Joe Biden was vice president.
Regardless of whether there is any basis for suggesting the president may have violated some federal election law, one thing is clear: few Americans will benefit from an impeachment spectacle.
Even David Brooks, who believes the president is guilty of the charges made against him, thinks that impeachment is a bad idea.
The president will now spend the rest of his first term, and probably most of his second, with limited political capital wasting time defending himself against this impeachment inquiry. This is not what the American people had in mind when they voted for him in 2016. What’s more, the impeachment inquiry damages the Democrats. It risks alienating the all-important moderate voters who, while they may dislike President Trump personally, rightly understand the severity of impeachment and are offended by what appears to be the Democratic Party’s trivialization of the process.
A Win for Queen Bee Pelosi
Yet, there is one person who could potentially benefit from impeachment: Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D.-Calif.). Pelosi, who actually only represents a small cadre of elite, neoliberal Democrats, opposed impeachment until very recently. Moreover, she was named speaker of the House this second time following the Democratic Party’s victory in the 2018 congressional midterm elections, but not without controversy. From the beginning of her tenure, she has faced stiff resistance as speaker—not only from her Republican rivals, but from the “democratic socialist” wing of her party, who believe that Pelosi’s leadership is too conventional and does not embrace their, frankly, radical notions.
To be sure, Pelosi is a True Believer in the church of Liberalism. Given that her Liberalism is from another generation, however, Pelosi has repeatedly come out against some of the democratic socialists’ more strident positions. For example, she has insisted that capitalism is good (possibly in deference to woke capital’s heavy donations to the Democratic party) whereas democratic socialists are open about their opposition to capitalism.
Pelosi even publicly mocked both Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D.-N.Y.) as well as AOC’s signature “Green New Deal.” Her attempts at moderation have been fighting a losing battle against the insurgent democratic socialists, however, so much so that many were speculating Pelosi had become an unwitting prisoner to these ghastly, radical upstarts.
Still, Pelosi dutifully took the center stage last week and announced her support for an impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump for his alleged mishandling of diplomacy with Ukraine. Pelosi, a seasoned Washington insider, likely knows that the majority of American voters will not understand the reasons for impeaching the president—because it is predicated on a very technical matter that few outside of Washington, D.C. understand.
It is more than likely that Americans will both rally to the president (believing the Democrats have gone overboard in their opposition to Trump) and deny Democrats their victory in 2020 because of this impeachment overreach.
And that’s a win for Pelosi.
As it stands, Pelosi cannot break the perception that she is being led around Capitol Hill, like a walker-bound septuagenarian at an assisted living facility by her young, callous nurse, AOC. Politics is mostly about perception. Therefore, both to protect her image as kingmaker, as well as the quickly fading influence of the Democratic Party’s neoliberal elite, Pelosi most likely ushered in the impeachment inquiry knowing it was doomed-to-fail.
Her hope is that the impeachment inquiry ends in such a disaster that it totally discredits the democratic socialist wing of her party, restoring Pelosi’s personal power in Washington as well as reinvigorating the dying neoliberal elite against the tireless forces of the democratic socialists.
Pelosi just might be right.
Elizabeth Warren Becomes the Frontrunner
Another aspect of impeachment is that it helps the Democrats remove the continuing embarrassment that is former Vice President Joe Biden’s leaden campaign for president. As vice president under the last Democratic president, Barack Obama, Biden was the heir-apparent, no matter how many Democratic voters (or even Barack Obama himself) opposed Biden’s absurd campaign.
Even more than in the GOP, though, the Democratic Party prefers to coronate their presidential candidates based on their standing within the Democratic elite (this explains the existence of superdelegates in the DNC’s primary process). And, with curmudgeonly radicals, like Senator Bernie Sanders (D.-Vt.), gaining popularity, the DNC elite are terrified of the alternatives to Biden.
Elizabeth Warren, on the other hand, is the only candidate who is both nominally supported by the DNC elite and is popular among most Democratic voters. Plus, her economic patriotism has received plaudits even from Trump-loving conservatives, like Tucker Carlson.
Since the impeachment inquiry against Trump includes revelations of the Biden family’s potentially corrupt dealings in Ukraine during Joe Biden’s tenure as vice president, the impeachment likely will be the final nail in the Biden campaign’s coffin.
Already, Elizabeth Warren is surging in the polls. As time nears to election day in 2020, it is likely that Warren will be the nominee about whom the Trump Campaign needs most to worry. And, while many Wall Street-types have already expressed their extreme displeasure over Warren’s presidential prospects, the fact remains that Warren presently is the only Democrat who appeals to the democratic socialists, to various identity groups (such as Baby Boomers and young people), to labor unions, and a host of other key voting blocs within the Democratic Party. Removing Biden without having to mount a direct attack on old Uncle Joe would be a deft way of preventing even more radical elements from winning the primary.
So, the country is being made to suffer a divisive and unnecessary impeachment inquiry to save the Democratic Party’s elite from its rising young generation of socialist activists. Don’t be mistaken: impeachment is an extreme act of desperation to save the dying neoliberal elite of the DNC. It has almost nothing to do with whether or not the Democrats can successfully remove Trump from office.