What are Democrats waiting for?

 

The left is distrustful of meritocracy.  For example, Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize before he even took office as President.  It didn’t matter what he had done.  It mattered who he was.  Likewise, after Donald Trump was elected President the first time, Democrats impeached him before he took office, and again after he left office.  I don’t recall what the actual impeachment charges were about – it doesn’t matter what he had done.  It matters who he is.

Which is why I’m so confused now.  Why haven’t Democrats impeached Trump yet?  A couple of nights ago a friend of mine let loose with a wild conspiracy theory:  “Perhaps Democrats recognize the popularity of Trump and his message, and perhaps Americans have been turned off by the catastrophic impacts of Democrat policies, and perhaps Democrats would be wise not to launch absurd attacks against a popular leader right now.”  In his defense, my friend had been drinking rather heavily.  I offered to drive him home.

Anyway, presuming that rational thought and learning from experience continue to play no role in Democrat decision-making, I have a few other, more reasonable, theories which might explain why Democrats have not yet impeached Donald Trump:

  • Democrat leaders, from Anthony Fauci to George Stephanopoulos, recognize that Americans are becoming increasingly angry about what Democrats have done to them. Perhaps using our legal system to explore political chicanery is not a great idea right now.
  • Their first two impeachments of Trump did not have the impact they had hoped. Perhaps Democrats are beginning to suspect that they don’t control messaging like they did in the days of three TV networks.  Convincing Joe Rogan to mindlessly repeat the party line may be more difficult than it was to convince Walter Cronkite to do so.
  • Perhaps Democrats think that Trump really is pissed off now. After being attacked from every angle for years, he finally recognizes that the US government is not his friend, and more importantly, that the US government is not the friend of the American people, either.  Perhaps Democrats think Trump is actually serious about cutting our government down to size, quickly and ruthlessly.  And if Trump really understands that, then perhaps it would be better if they stopped screwing with him.

I really don’t know.

Democrats hold 211 seats in the House.  They could convince a few Republicans to agree with them, on anything that criticizes Trump.  If not, Democrats could launch their own investigation into their own impeachment accusations, use the FBI to help, and count on CNN to carry it.  They don’t need Republican support.  They could do this if they wanted to.

But they’re not.

I wonder why?

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  1. Arahant Member
    Arahant
    @Arahant

    Other than a few of them, most are still trying to figure out what happened.

    • #1
  2. Susan Quinn Member
    Susan Quinn
    @SusanQuinn

    If you are trying to come up for a rational reason that the Dems do anything, you’re in deep doo-doo. But if you do figure it out, let me know. Sigh.

    • #2
  3. Percival Thatcher
    Percival
    @Percival

    Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

    Maybe a few of them aren’t crazy.

    • #3
  4. Sisyphus Member
    Sisyphus
    @Sisyphus

    Since the Clintons, I have watched Democrats focus on the message. These guys have made a religion of the message. Winning an election is transactional. They communicate a message, check the polls, tweak the message, and when they win they grift their brains out. A lot of others in the Uniparty, too, but most reliably the Democrats. You don’t get a nuclear dumpster fire like California with sewage on the sidewalk and a syringe man replacing the milk man from people with any interest in actually governing. Government by criminal defense attorneys looks like this, government by parents raising their families in prudence and love looks nothing like this.

    Trump is a mutant to these people. Shot in the face, he rises and pumps his fist in an absolutely never focus grouped message, never tweaked by a committee of PhDs, “Fight, fight, fight.” And the crowd responds. Not running for the exits trampling their fellows like the PhD committee would have predicted, but chanting, “USA, USA, USA…” While they scan the crowd for threats. Republicans prepared to pounce.

    But the Uniparty has clinched that syringe subscriber vote. And they will tweak the message until they rule all of Metropolis.

    • #4
  5. Sisyphus Member
    Sisyphus
    @Sisyphus

    If only Kamala had been lucky enough to be shot in the face. Hey, Suzy, put together a focus group. Hurry, we have less than four years to tweak this message.

    • #5
  6. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    Sisyphus (View Comment):

    Since the Clintons, I have watched Democrats focus on the message. These guys have made a religion of the message. Winning an election is transactional. They communicate a message, check the polls, tweak the message, and when they win they grift their brains out. A lot of others in the Uniparty, too, but most reliably the Democrats. You don’t get a nuclear dumpster fire like California with sewage on the sidewalk and a syringe man replacing the milk man from people with any interest in actually governing. Government by criminal defense attorneys looks like this, government by parents raising their families in prudence and love looks nothing like this.

    Trump is a mutant to these people. Shot in the face, he rises and pumps his fist in an absolutely never focus grouped message, never tweaked by a committee of PhDs, “Fight, fight, fight.” And the crowd responds. Not running for the exits trampling their fellows like the PhD committee would have predicted, but chanting, “USA, USA, USA…” While they scan the crowd for threats. Republicans prepared to pounce.

    But the Uniparty has clinched that syringe subscriber vote. And they will tweak the message until they rule all of Metropolis.

    But the syringe subscribers have far more of a likelihood of ending up in the ground, don’t they?

    Maybe that doesn’t matter if actual votes aren’t being counted anyway.

    • #6
  7. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    P.S.  Was anyone else thinking of the expression of someone having a “punchable face?”

    • #7
  8. Trink Coolidge
    Trink
    @Trink

    Dr. Bastiat: In his defense, my friend had been drinking rather heavily

    ummm . . .  since election night.. we all feel like we’ve been drinking heavily.. .. We’re staggering around in relief and delight as we remind ourselves that “Cackles” won’t be settling into the White House come January 20 :-D

    • #8
  9. Sisyphus Member
    Sisyphus
    @Sisyphus

    Trink (View Comment):

    Dr. Bastiat: In his defense, my friend had been drinking rather heavily

    ummm . . . since election night.. we all feel like we’ve been drinking heavily.. .. We’re staggering around in relief and delight as we remind ourselves that “Cackles” won’t be settling into the White House come January 20 :-D

    Unless, of course, Congress reverses the election results with Cackles wielding the gavel. That would teach Orange Hitler!

    • #9
  10. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    Sisyphus (View Comment):

    Trink (View Comment):

    Dr. Bastiat: In his defense, my friend had been drinking rather heavily

    ummm . . . since election night.. we all feel like we’ve been drinking heavily.. .. We’re staggering around in relief and delight as we remind ourselves that “Cackles” won’t be settling into the White House come January 20 :-D

    Unless, of course, Congress reverses the election results with Cackles wielding the gavel. That would teach Orange Hitler!

    In which case it would have been valid in 2020 and Trump should have been president the last 4 years.

    No backsies!

    • #10
  11. GLDIII Purveyor of Splendid Malpropisms Reagan
    GLDIII Purveyor of Splendid Malpropisms
    @GLDIII

    Dr. Bastiat: In his defense, my friend had been drinking rather heavily.  I offered to drive him home.

    Says the physician who rather enjoys his whiskey.

    • #11
  12. Percival Thatcher
    Percival
    @Percival

    kedavis (View Comment):

    Sisyphus (View Comment):

    Trink (View Comment):

    Dr. Bastiat: In his defense, my friend had been drinking rather heavily

    ummm . . . since election night.. we all feel like we’ve been drinking heavily.. .. We’re staggering around in relief and delight as we remind ourselves that “Cackles” won’t be settling into the White House come January 20 :-D

    Unless, of course, Congress reverses the election results with Cackles wielding the gavel. That would teach Orange Hitler!

    In which case it would have been valid in 2020 and Trump should have been president the last 4 years.

    No backsies!

    If Trump had been president for the last four years, he’d be winding down now and all they would have missed is the single term of FJB.

    • #12
  13. Scott Wilmot Member
    Scott Wilmot
    @ScottWilmot

    Trink (View Comment):

    Dr. Bastiat: In his defense, my friend had been drinking rather heavily

    ummm . . . since election night.. we all feel like we’ve been drinking heavily.. .. We’re staggering around in relief and delight as we remind ourselves that “Cackles” won’t be settling into the White House come January 20 :-D

    100%. Other than I disagree with the “feel like” part. This is exactly what I am doing.

    • #13
  14. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    Percival (View Comment):

    kedavis (View Comment):

    Sisyphus (View Comment):

    Trink (View Comment):

    Dr. Bastiat: In his defense, my friend had been drinking rather heavily

    ummm . . . since election night.. we all feel like we’ve been drinking heavily.. .. We’re staggering around in relief and delight as we remind ourselves that “Cackles” won’t be settling into the White House come January 20 :-D

    Unless, of course, Congress reverses the election results with Cackles wielding the gavel. That would teach Orange Hitler!

    In which case it would have been valid in 2020 and Trump should have been president the last 4 years.

    No backsies!

    If Trump had been president for the last four years, he’d be winding down now and all they would have missed is the single term of FJB.

    Perfectly good reason.  But since they wouldn’t have experienced FJB, they’d have less understanding of WHY it would have been a good thing.

    • #14
  15. Django Member
    Django
    @Django

    Arahant (View Comment):

    Other than a few of them, most are still trying to figure out what happened.

    Oh, they know what happened, but don’t know why. 

    https://twitter.com/Alicia_Smith19/status/1871325054660678105?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1871325054660678105%7Ctwgr%5E0aa7ef0d323f83bd3242d65c7cec2cc4a510274e%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thegatewaypundit.com%2F2024%2F12%2Fpost-election-focus-groups-indicate-that-democrat-party%2F

    • #15
  16. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    Django (View Comment):

    Arahant (View Comment):

    Other than a few of them, most are still trying to figure out what happened.

    Oh, they know what happened, but don’t know why.

    https://twitter.com/Alicia_Smith19/status/1871325054660678105?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1871325054660678105%7Ctwgr%5E0aa7ef0d323f83bd3242d65c7cec2cc4a510274e%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thegatewaypundit.com%2F2024%2F12%2Fpost-election-focus-groups-indicate-that-democrat-party%2F

    As usual all that really matters is

    https://twitter.com/Alicia_Smith19/status/1871325054660678105

    the rest is just tracking your activity, what ads to show you…

    • #16
  17. Arahant Member
    Arahant
    @Arahant

    Django (View Comment):
    Oh, they know what happened, but don’t know why.

    If one doesn’t know the why, one does not really understand the what, either.

    • #17
  18. Stad Coolidge
    Stad
    @Stad

    House Republicans – cue the circular firing squad . . .

    • #18
  19. genferei Member
    genferei
    @genferei

    Stad (View Comment):

    House Republicans – cue the circular firing squad . . .

    Senate Republicans are far more disciplined: they know that change is their enemy, and they’d much rather deal with Chuck and Hakeem than then American People any day. Expect coordinated and sustained fire on the Whitehouse from… well, late November.

    • #19
  20. Rightfromthestart Coolidge
    Rightfromthestart
    @Rightfromthestart

    Scott Wilmot (View Comment):

    Trink (View Comment):

    Dr. Bastiat: In his defense, my friend had been drinking rather heavily

    ummm . . . since election night.. we all feel like we’ve been drinking heavily.. .. We’re staggering around in relief and delight as we remind ourselves that “Cackles” won’t be settling into the White House come January 20 :-D

    100%. Other than I disagree with the “feel like” part. This is exactly what I am doing.

    Everyone I talk to says some version of this, we’ve all been holding our breaths for a year wondering what the Dem/media/Deep State/Rino complex is going to come up with to pull the football way again. 

    • #20
  21. Old Bathos Member
    Old Bathos
    @OldBathos

    The Dems have been forced into the role of a normal minority opposition party. They will be all about blocking what they can, seizing on failures or unpopular measures. The 2020 election shattered the Obamite arrogance that they are entitled to use every aspect of government power  (lawfare, impeachment, abuse of federal intel and law enforcement agencies, totalitarian takeover of social media and major news channels) to cancel an election when they so choose. 

    The GOP has a very small margin and a two-year window to consolidate and expand its new configuration otherwise the Dems will morph into what can pass for a functional governing entity despite glaring defects. 

    • #21
  22. The Reticulator Member
    The Reticulator
    @TheReticulator

    Old Bathos (View Comment):
    The GOP has a very small margin and a two-year window to consolidate and expand its new configuration otherwise the Dems will morph into what can pass for a functional governing entity despite glaring defects. 

    A two-year window?  All of two years? In that case let’s spend the first year talking about new projects such as daylight savings time and invading and conquering Greenland, Canada, and the Canal Zone.  Once we’ve got some new forever wars started, we have 12 months to work people’s attention back to inflation, immigration, and the swamp. Once people’s attention is again fully engaged, there will be a new Congress and it will be too late to do anything, which will let us off the hook.  We can campaign in 2028 on the excuse that there wasn’t enough time and we need more.   

    • #22
  23. Sisyphus Member
    Sisyphus
    @Sisyphus

    The Reticulator (View Comment):

    Old Bathos (View Comment):
    The GOP has a very small margin and a two-year window to consolidate and expand its new configuration otherwise the Dems will morph into what can pass for a functional governing entity despite glaring defects.

    A two-year window? All of two years? In that case let’s spend the first year talking about new projects such as daylight savings time and invading and conquering Greenland, Canada, and the Canal Zone. Once we’ve got some new forever wars started, we have 12 months to work people’s attention back to inflation, immigration, and the swamp. Once people’s attention is again fully engaged, there will be a new Congress and it will be too late to do anything, which will let us off the hook. We can campaign in 2028 on the excuse that there wasn’t enough time and we need more.

    So you follow the habits of Washington.

    • #23
  24. Django Member
    Django
    @Django

    Late to the party, as usual, but the local NPR outlet broadcast a segment about how the Democrats can turn it around. It showed that: 1) Those in the party who have functioning minds and some political insight know the problem, 2) They are afraid to state it in unambiguous terms. Various experts talked about returning to the roots of the party, reminding the working class which party has always supported them, and so on. No discussion as to why the Democrats trashed their support of the working class in favor of an out-of-touch elite and at the same time decided that it is a good idea to insult those of religious faith in favor of every perversion imaginable. The one thing all of the experts — and most of them were political science professors it seemed — agreed on was the need for another Obama or Slick Willie. IOW, personality over substance. I guess I can understand because it worked with Obama who lacked any substance at all.

    • #24
  25. Sisyphus Member
    Sisyphus
    @Sisyphus

    Django (View Comment):

    Late to the party, as usual, but the local NPR outlet broadcast a segment about how the Democrats can turn it around. It showed that: 1) Those in the party who have functioning minds and some political insight know the problem, 2) They are afraid to state it in unambiguous terms. Various experts talked about returning to the roots of the party, reminding the working class which party has always supported them, and so on. No discussion as to why the Democrats trashed their support of the working class in favor of an out-of-touch elite and at the same time decided that it is a good idea to insult those of religious faith in favor of every perversion imaginable. The one thing all of the experts — and most of them were political science professors it seemed — was the need for another Obama or Slick Willie. IOW, personality over substance. I guess I can understand because it worked with Obama who lacked any substance at all.

    They don’t start from what strategies would be healthy for the people of the nation. They proceed strictly from, what tactics would deliver them power and therefore maximize their grift. The attempt to reengineer this nation into the kind of third world pest hole that is helpless before their rapists and pillagers has laid their visceral hostility bare. And still the popular vote was close in the presidential contest. 

    • #25
  26. Percival Thatcher
    Percival
    @Percival

    Django (View Comment):
    Various experts talked about returning to the roots of the party, reminding the working class which party has always supported them, and so on.

    “That’s great and all, but it’s ancient history. What your party has been doing for me lately is providing support for teachers who are trying to turn my son into my daughter.”

    • #26
  27. Al Sparks Coolidge
    Al Sparks
    @AlSparks

    The real reason is that, unlike a parliamentary system, parties in the U.S. don’t have formal party leaders.  The president is the de-facto party leader of his own party, but even then it’s not a formal designation.

    A party nominee for president is also a de-facto party leader during election season, but as soon as the election is over, the losing party loses their de-facto party leader until the next presidential election season when they have nominated someone for president.

    So the Democrats don’t presently have one person they can turn to, to coordinate a coherent political strategy.

    Possibly the Congressional Democrats are waiting for the next Congress to turn over, but the fact that Trump won the popular vote has taken a lot of the air out of their sails.  And impeachment as a symbolic weapon has lost a lot of it’s punch because it’s been used so often with little effect (i.e. removal from office).

    • #27
  28. Percival Thatcher
    Percival
    @Percival

    Al Sparks (View Comment):
    Possibly the Congressional Democrats are waiting for the next Congress to turn over, but the fact that Trump won the popular vote has taken a lot of the air out of their sails.  And impeachment as a symbolic weapon has lost a lot of it’s punch because it’s been used so often with little effect (i.e. removal from office).

    Oh, I think it had an effect. It was a component of the general lawfare offensive against Trump and those who support him. Instead of making them afraid, it made them mad. Their actions belied their lip service to healing our differences and unifying the country.

    • #28
  29. aardo vozz Member
    aardo vozz
    @aardovozz

    Sisyphus (View Comment):

    Since the Clintons, I have watched Democrats focus on the message. These guys have made a religion of the message. Winning an election is transactional. They communicate a message, check the polls, tweak the message, and when they win they grift their brains out. A lot of others in the Uniparty, too, but most reliably the Democrats. You don’t get a nuclear dumpster fire like California with sewage on the sidewalk and a syringe man replacing the milk man from people with any interest in actually governing. Government by criminal defense attorneys looks like this, government by parents raising their families in prudence and love looks nothing like this.

    Trump is a mutant to these people. Shot in the face, he rises and pumps his fist in an absolutely never focus grouped message, never tweaked by a committee of PhDs, “Fight, fight, fight.” And the crowd responds. Not running for the exits trampling their fellows like the PhD committee would have predicted, but chanting, “USA, USA, USA…” While they scan the crowd for threats. Republicans prepared to pounce.

    But the Uniparty has clinched that syringe subscriber vote. And they will tweak the message until they rule all of Metropolis.

    Your insufficiently cynical comment makes good sense, but gives politicians way too much credit.😎

    • #29
  30. Red Herring Coolidge
    Red Herring
    @EHerring

    Percival (View Comment):

    Al Sparks (View Comment):
    Possibly the Congressional Democrats are waiting for the next Congress to turn over, but the fact that Trump won the popular vote has taken a lot of the air out of their sails. And impeachment as a symbolic weapon has lost a lot of it’s punch because it’s been used so often with little effect (i.e. removal from office).

    Oh, I think it had an effect. It was a component of the general lawfare offensive against Trump and those who support him. Instead of making them afraid, it made them mad. Their actions belied their lip service to healing our differences and unifying the country.

    THIS!!!!

    • #30
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