The clamor for impeaching Trump seems to grow with every new attempt by him to stonewall Congress I have to wonder though, how many people who listen to those arguing for impeachment realize what they are really asking for? I'm going to hazard a guess that when the average person hears someone say the president must be impeached they assume it means getting him to answer for his crimes and being removed from office. '
Well I have bad news for them. That's not what it means at all. Impeachment merely means bringing charges against the president in the House. This will be followed by a trial in the Senate where he will be acquitted because convicting him would require 18 Republican Senators to basically end their careers and vote to convict. Worse than that, it will be presided over by John (Citizens United) Roberts and, while the House democrats will lead the prosecution, the process such as whether there is live testimony, recorded testimony or nothing more than a re-reading of the Mueller report and what evidence is admissible or not admissible will be determined by Senate rules which only require a majority vote (hence will be the ones Republicans want). One can only imagine the clever ways that Mitch McConnell will come up to throw wrenches or banana peels into that process at every turn culminating of course with an endless parade of Republican Senators following the acquittal standing up and decrying the whole process as a failed witch hunt and the Democrats for trying to foment a coup against the newly found innocent Trump whom they will claim they knew was innocent all along. People like Ted Cruz or Lindsay Graham will stand up and say that in the end they are glad the impeachment went forward as it proved that Trump was innocent once and for all. Case finally closed.
Once that occurs the President will effectively be exonerated. There is no do over, no appeal. The Democratic leaders, having initiated the process can hardly then be seen to reject the results. Most everyone will agree that would be nothing more than sour grapes. In other words, the Democrats will have fired all their ammunition and Trump will have survived and triumphed. This is not merely a possible outcome of the impeachment. It is the inevitable outcome. This means that if we want to tell the public the truth, we should take every headline that reads "Trump should be impeached" and replace it with "Trump should be charged then acquitted".
You see,impeachment was a process dreamed up by another generation of law makers. A generation in which all the parties while they may have disagreed on policy were presumably united in respecting and upholding Democracy. Those days have come and gone. The Republican party of today has long since developed a distaste and open contempt for Democracy and attempts at every turn to dismantle and delegitimize it. In such a world impeachment is unfortunately an anachronism. The Democrats may as well push to tar and feather Trump or put him in stocks in front of the capital.
Instead of impeachment what the Democrats need to do is focus their energy on preserving the courts As with the other two branches, Republicans are moving with great zeal towards tearing that Democratic institution down as well. If they can gain the presidency they can then indict and hand Trump over to the courts. Unlike the now totally partisan impeachment process, it is very likely that Trump will be found guilty. This is the only practical way we have to get justice and re-affirm the rule of law. Those calling for impeachment are merely waxing nostalgic about the United States of the history books.