There's a simple way Democrats could sell their absurd "more in sorrow than in anger, we really hate to do this but honor compels us, pinky swear!" routine to skeptical voters: retroactively impeach Barack Obama on the same articles they drew up for Donald Trump.
The articles manifestly apply to Obama at least as much as Trump, if not more - Obama was the grand master of not cooperating with congressional investigations, as Eric Holder could tell you. And abuse of power? Check with the Supreme Court for Obama's scorecard.
Of COURSE the American people see Impeachment Theater as a partisan political ploy. Dems have been plotting to impeach Trump since five minutes after Hillary Clinton conceded in 2016, and everyone knows it. Making it symbolically bipartisan by adding Obama could help fix that.
This is all political theatrics anyway, so adding Obama to the proceedings would be a show-stopper. Democrats don't live in the real world, they live on the Beltway-media political stage. Think of the talking points and Sunday-show credibility they would get!
Every Republican entering the media arena to denounce impeachment as a partisan farce would be instantly skunked. "We proved we're serious and sober statespersons by applying these articles to a Democrat president too. We're serious about proper limits on executive power!"
Granted this would not be taken well by Mr. Obama, but Democrats might have noticed that he doesn't seem to think much of their presidential candidates and isn't helping his own former veep, which is prolonging the dumpster-fire Democrat primary to an agonizing degree.
Obama probably wouldn't face any painful consequences from retroactive impeachment, whereas Trump would be weakened, maybe even crippled, by a bipartisan double-bill impeachment process. Dems would look less like weak partisans trying to throw a Hail Mary election pass.
What the heck, why not give it a shot, Democrats? You don't really have anything to lose. With a little luck, you might turn impeachment into something more than a transparent effort to preemptively challenge the legitimacy of Trump's second term. /end
