So this is among the less surprising Breaking News! pieces I've ever seen. Of course Trump sent Giuliani to Ukraine to find damaging information on his political opponents, as the House impeachment managers argued; of course Trump lied about it while fighting impeachment.
The "red flashing lights, democracy in danger" vibe in Washington is discussed here in a good essay by @sbg1 that frankly... newyorker.com/news/letter-fr…
.....makes me wonder at the ability of people to believe things they have no reason at all to think are true, like Trump being restrained after beating the rap. So what is to be done about it?
I'm thinking about the electoral politics here. Of course there ought to be a response in the short term by House committees firing off subpoenas left and right. Democratic Senators can't do that, but they can force floor votes on embarrassing resolutions.
But let's be honest. I never had any real doubt that Senate Republicans would line up obediently to protect Trump during the impeachment trial, no matter what the charges and no matter what the evidence. That's the reality of American politics today. They belong to him.
I had hoped the House would bring multiple articles of impeachment because I thought Republicans in Congress would eagerly defend anything Trump had done: even the criminal stuff, even the petty grifting. I thought this could be made to hurt them with voters. I still do.
Democrats in Washington have, right up to @RepAdamSchiff's closing argument last week, aimed at splitting off at least a few Republican legislators from Trump. That was why the House brought only two articles of impeachment, about the Ukraine affair.
Together, they had less ambiguity and a much shorter record of evidence than articles of impeachment addressing, say, Trump's obstruction of Congress, financial corruption, or abuse of Presidential authority to declare national emergencies would have had.
Surely, Democrats' thinking went, a narrow & focused impeachment would provide House and Senate Republicans the widest possible opening to break with a President obviously guilty of what he was accused of doing. The thinking was wrong.
That being the case, Democrats need to turn from trying to split Republican legislators off from Trump to trying to split voters off from Trump and Republican legislators.
Senate Republicans, including all the ones up for reelection this year, voted to approve Trump abuse of power in the Ukraine matter, and his obstruction of Congress. They didn't have a chance to approve of his asking for Russian help to get elected, obstructing investigations...
....of criminal conduct, or having people with business before the government pour money into his hotels. But they would have, if the House had included these in articles of impeachment. Republicans in Congress would have defended hush money payments to porn stars, too.
Republicans in Congress know their "base" -- the voters who only get news from Facebook, Fox and AM talk radio -- demands loyalty to The Leader, so they give it to preserve their own careers. That's where to attack them, individually and collectively.
Republican politicians fighting for themselves, indifferent to their constituents' problems, too weak and frightened to stand up to Trump. Democratic candidates demanding action on health care reform, climate change, fighting corruption in government.
It's a powerful contrast, but Democrats will need to really lean into it. Forget about the "reaching across the aisle" rhetoric. Forget about trying to attract Trump voters by showing Democratic candidates can be a little like Republicans.
Don't be squeamish. And don't mute the Democratic Party label. If Democrats are going to tar every Republican candidate with Trump's corruption, abuse of power and moral turpitude, they're going to have to set every Democratic candidate as opposed to all these things.
Campaign messaging only goes so far -- invariably in my experience, that's not as far as political commentators think it ought to. And Trump's circus does present the problem of a target-rich environment. He's screwing up a lot of things at the same time; what to focus on?
Focus on everything; to be precise, on Republican politicians willing to take everything they get from Trump to save their own skins. Hammer the people, and the party. Personally, I wish democracy could be defended in some other way. Right now, this is it. [end]
