Source: Gallup
A reader remarks on Speaker Pelosi’s apparent preference to jail President Trump:
I think she’s just trying to defuse the push for impeachment. Which makes her an impediment. She ought to get out of the way, or be forced out.
I think this is a dicey question. We have a bunch of variables, some of which we think we know how they’ll work, and some we have only a little historical precedent, of a long time ago, to work with.
- GOP Senators. While there’s a constant grumble of discontent with certain parts of the Trump Administration, they generally do not buck President Trump, although I’ll grant there has been a few exceptions, the most noteworthy being the vote to deny funding for the Saudis with regard to their war in Yemen. But, as the link I provided reports, they were not sufficiently together on the subject to override the Presidential veto. It’s quite likely that they will never vote for conviction on impeachment charges, if only because most of them agree with South Carolina Senator Graham’s sentiment that their primary motivation in occupying their seats is to … get re-elected. Sadly, no one has put themselves forward in the mold of Senator Howard Baker (R-TN), who had the courage to ask publicly of his own Republican President, “What did the President know and when did he know it?”
- American public. It’s been speculated that Pelosi wants more public support before initiating impeachment proceedings, but it’s a tricky thing, isn’t it? Former Democratic Rep Steve Israel of New York notes in The Atlantic, “… Even Republicans recall how the failed impeachment of President Bill Clinton backfired: In 1998, Democrats gained seats in Congress, a rare occurrence for a president’s party in a midterm election.” Contrariwise, in the comparable case, the Nixon impeachment, the impeachment and trial never actually occurred, as Nixon resigned before he could be impeached. But the investigations had begun and, as the chart at the top of this post indicates, as details of Nixon’s actions came to light, his approval ratings began dropping, ending in the low 20s.
But today’s American public is not that of the Nixon years, when virtually everyone voted for Nixon in the face of voting for him or the radical McGovern; the public, once it had its face rubbed in the evidence, was far more fluid, ready to change its mind when the evidence was presented for public viewing. Today, amidst the thousands of “news” sources, people tend to find the ones that make them happy, rather than those that make them uncomfortable, and if they’re inclined to Trump, then the evidence of his alleged misdeeds may never reach them.
Given Rep Israel’s observations concerning the backlash that hit the Republicans in the election following the failed Clinton impeachment, Speaker Pelosi’s refusal to begin impeachment proceedings without strong evidence derived from current investigations, and a groundswell of support from the general American public may be the wiser course of action – even if it may seem a trifle craven in the face of the evidence so far gathered, but not yet widely dispersed to the public.
