I would like to start this by conceding the strategic error of beginning impeachment proceedings. I will keep this short. Here two things are most likely true.
1. Impeachment will not result in the removal of the Trump
2. Impeachment will likely galvanize his support with his base
The Mueller report is absolutely damning, and many smart Democratic strategists recognize that it is more damaging for Trump to argue with 400 pieces of paper than it is to give him a partisan circus to use as a counterpoint. Anyone here should listen to these strategists, because they understand politics.
Bur there is a greater ethical principle at work here. We tend to always see ourselves at the end point of history, We think in terms of our present conflicts. We calculate our progress in terms of seats won and seats lost. In such a context the case for impeachment versus allowing the electorate to sort it out diminishes. The problem is that the electorate has no memory. Elections are a drunken night out. We know something happened, but the why of it escapes us.
Impeachment is not about us. It is about the country, which will face questions foreign influence and executive powers generations from now.
Today it is Russia, Saudi Arabia, Israel, etc., but there will always be a need to understand the balance between strategic interest and undue influence from foreign nations. The Mueller report reinforces the extent to which Russia went to find a sympathetic partner in Trump.
Today it is the firing of Comey, the crafted statement on the Trump Tower meeting, telling witnesses to lie, etc., but the relationship between a justice department and the executive branch, which oversees it, will always a constitutional blind spot for our nation.
Impeachment proceedings are a historical record from which laws can be crafted. They are a historical record, which forces partisans into higher levels of responsibility. For every Republican Senator currently serving, the decision for the Senate to take up a House recommendation of impeachment or to let it go unaddressed will define their place in history. In the short term this may help them, but in the context of history it will be a Republican endorsement of criminality and corruption. They chose Nixon’s resignation, which is the only way their party survived the last time.
I am not certain which way I think is best. But there is a principled argument here, which is what history are we writing.