The Moral Cowardice That Is ‘Self-Impeachment’

Shelton Bumgarner

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

I will give Democrats credit, they are about as bad at doing what should be done — impeaching Trump — as I am playing pool (which is very bad.)

So, it seems this is the “strategy” of the House Democratic leadership. They do just enough on the impeachment front that they can credibly tell the progressive base that they’re actually doing something on that front. But they’re moving so slow and in such a half-hearted fashion that they can also crediably assure the moderates that give them their majority that they’re actually going to let Trump “self impeach.” Which, of course, means they expect Trump not to win re-election.

The similarities between the political clusterfuck Americans find themselves in with that of the British are pretty startling. In both instances systemic, existential problems — largely based on lies and racism — and destroying what were otherwise previously pretty stable democracies.

In fact, I believe the 2020 election is going to be America’s Brexit. And, sad to say, it will be even more self-inflicted than Brexit itself. In other words, Trump isn’t going anywhere. So the thought that he will “self-impeach” is bullshit on the face of it.

While I struggle to figure out why House Democrats are so reluctant to impeach Trump, I think it boils down to two things. One, they know that no matter what they prove, Trump will never be convicted in the Senate. Second, they’re afraid that a sizable portion of their caucus will be put in jeopardy by impeaching Trump in the first place. These are the moderate members of the Democratic House caucus who in previous years would have been represented by Republicans. But that, of course, was before the Republicans were eaten by MAGA and given a huge amount of power through gerrymandering.

But back to the issue at hand — impeachment. I have come to believe there’s only one of two ways Trump ever gets impeached. Either the sheer magnitude of Trump’s impeachable offenses makes it impossible for the House not to do it sooner rather than later or we wait until well into Trump’s second term when he is so brazen that something, at last, has to be done.

Of course, a side possibility is Trump’s mental instability finally reaches such a critical mass that we have something along the lines of a political 9/11 on our hands and the investigation into Trump’s criminality can be counted in days, not weeks or months.

And, yet, really, as I keep saying, populist autocracy never loses. There’s really nothing to be done. Maybe the economy slows down in a few months to such an extent that Trump’s popularity reaches the teens. But by that point it will all be moot and Trump will win reelection through doxing individual Electors or whatever.

At this point, I think Trump could nuke us all to hell and there would be a subterranean MAGA death cult that would prosper long after all of us are vaporized.

Author: Shelton Bumgarner

I am the Editor & Publisher of The Trumplandia Report

Leave a Reply