Thread by @SallyAlbright

PSA: The question of Impeachment is not over whether Trump's crimes are "impeachable"- of course they are. He committed impeachable offenses the very first day.

The questions the House is considering are:

1) Is impeachment the best remedy?
2) Are the votes there?

1/

Since we know the votes are not there, House or Senate, Impeachment is not the best remedy, since it is no remedy at all.

If the votes were there in the House, impeachment is still not a remedy, since it is a 2-part process and the votes aren't there in the Senate
2/

Some of you would be happy with a failed impeachment.

You want to spank him

You want an asterisk by his name

You want to "send a message"

You care about the "judgment of history"

That's about you. That's about anger and fear and thirst for vengeance. That's not a remedy.
3/

I'm seeing a lot of tweets about "Constitutional duty" and "Rule of Law"

Impeachment isn't about the law. If it were, the framers would have given the power to SCOTUS and defined specific crimes or circumstances that would trigger an impeachment proceeding.

4/

Instead, the power to remove the president is left at the discretion of Congress. There's no mandate. It's political - it's what the public will and will not support. The people pass final judgment on how their Members vote, since the Members face them in the next election.
5/

It's not about the law. Congress could impeach the President for jaywalking if they had the votes. But they wouldn't. Because that's ridiculous. They would be voted out.

My point is, it's not about the severity of the crimes.
6/

I know the last tweet made some of you angry.

"They are cowards!" you say. "They should be willing to lose their seats to stand up for what is right!"

Seriously?

7/

It isn't about individual Members keeping their jobs. It's about keeping their seats in the hands of Democrats and not losing the House.

We should all be afraid of a GOP majority. If you aren't, maybe you don't really support Democratic values so why should we listen to you?
8/

In 2010, another census year, House Democrats passed ACA. Moderate Democrats sacrificed their seats. We lost the House.

But we got ACA. It was costly, but as Obama said, it was worth it.
9/

"Sending a message" is not worth losing the House. Especially in a census year when it it critical that we maintain legislative control over redistricting.

If you don't care about redistricting, maybe you don't understand the stakes, so again, why should we listen to you?
10/

Some of you argue the people could come around. If only they knew what you know, they would want him removed.

Most of them do, and it doesn't matter

There are very few Americans who are undecided on Trump. Those who hate him like we do hate him with the fire of 1000 suns.
11/

People who support Trump, whether they regret it or not, are invested. They've let him get away with so many things, there's no incentive to draw the line now. Think of it as "sunk costs" - what was the point of supporting him in the first place if they allow him to fail now?
12/

"WHATABOUT 1974," people say. "We were glued to our TVs watching the hearings. Public opinion changed."

First of all, Nixon was no impeached. He resigned because GOP forced him out after he lost in court. It had nothing to do with public opinion.

13/

But more specifically, in 1974 there were 3 channels. Now there are hundreds, thousands even, plus Netflix/Hulu and the internet and gaming and countless other entertainment diversions.

People have options. They don't have to sit and watch Congressional hearings.
14/

And the hearings everybody watched in 1974 were not "impeachment" hearings, they were Watergate investigation hearings, the same oversight hearings we are having now.

"Impeachment" isn't a magic word that makes people pay attention. They either care or they don't.
15/

In 1974, there was no Fox News running an aggressive counter-narrative on behalf of the Trump and GOP, amplified and aggrandized by Right Wing web sites, talk radio, Reddit, and Twitter.

You saw what happened yesterday.
16/

"We must stop him NOW!" you say. "We can't wait. And the election might not even be fair!"

This makes no sense. Impeachment doesn't stop him. Even if he's impeached, we still have to beat him in Nov 2020

Impeachment has no bearing on election security- it's a separate issue
17/

Even if Trump were somehow removed and Pence became President, Trump's policies would not end. We'd still have to beat Pence/GOP to help those kids in cages

And if you don't think Pence is worse, maybe you don't know anything about Mike Pence, so why should we listen to you?
18/

There's more but I have to log off rn