Suppose Nancy and Co Have to Do Impeachment?

Suppose the Democrats dropped the impeachment thingy. What would happen?

Obviously, one of two things. Or maybe both, arising from the sense of betrayal in the Democratic base. 

How could you, dear leaders, after all this time, just throw up your hands about the eevil Trump? For nearly three years, Democrats have assured their base that tomorrow -- well, next week at the latest -- we will have the "bombshell" that proves that... Yes what exactly? So, if the Democrats folded their tents and went home, the base would be saying: "well, if there's nothing to see here, why did you recruit us and train us, and send us into battle?"

It's the same problem that a nation state faces in the middle of a war. Can the nation's leaders tell their people that, well, OK, we thought this war was a good idea at the time, but now it looks like it's a mistake, so we are going to stop the war and send the soldiers home. You can see that very few political leaders would ever dare to do that. Except Donald Trump who just decided to pack up the Syria thing and go home.

First, the Democratic base might lose heart. That would be bad for Democrats, because half the game of winning elections is turning out your supporters. For that the supporters either have to be enthused about their leadership, or angry at the opposition, or both. Without enthusiasm, without anger, bye bye winning the election.

Second, the Democrat base might get angry -- at the Democratic leadership. What would the base do? Well, I imagine they would up their support for e.g., the Democratic Socialists of America. This would not be good for Speaker Nancy Pelosi's successful strategy of recruiting moderate candidates to run in Trump-supporting districts. It's a delicate business, running nice moderate candidates in moderate districts and making sure that voters don't associate their moderate candidate with the fire-breathers of the "Squad" and the climate change extremists and the racist Revs. and the LGBT advocates. So the Democratic base might start primarying moderate Democrats with lefty extremists. OK, they already are. But obviously, if they feel betrayed by the Democrat leadership they will do more of it.

Either way, I'd say the Democrats are batting on a bit of a sticky wicket. What they should have doné, back on November 8, 2016, is concede the election to Donald Trump. That's the way things are supposed to work in a democracy, especially in a normal change election. It is very rare for a party to win three presidential elections in a row: get used to it! Then, after a season in which the seasoned elders of the party analyze the election you put the pot on the stove again and slowly bring up the heat in time to get the base really worked up for the next election.

Actually, I think that the Democrats are batting on a bit of a sticky wicket all around. That's because the whole welfare state is reaching its sell-by date. Look, I get that all elections are about offering free stuff, loot and plunder. But the problem is that once you have done the easy stuff, like free education and pensions and health care for the aged and poor and you have already sucked up 40 percent of GDP, what do you do for an encore? What the left has been doing for an encore is riling up the educated with religious frenzies like climate change and riling up small but motivated minorities like blacks, feminists, and gays with the fear that the white supremacists are out to get them. Notice that this is a bit different from riling up the vast majority of voters back in the day when the working class was a majority of voters.

I'd say that the majority of voters today are ordinary wage-earning middle class people that are not moved by the religious frenzies of the educated elite and not particularly moved by identity politics. Obviously, these are the people that Donald Trump has targeted in his campaign and his presidency: to encourage everyone to think of themselves as proud Americans. This strategy beckons to minorities to venture forth out of their ethnic enclaves into the broad American mainstream. And it cocks a snook at the educated elite that thinks of themselves as above the crude culture of nationalism, darling.

Putting this in terms of my reductive Three Peoples theory, I would say that People of the Creative Self need something more that a responsible life to give meaning to their lives, so they tend towards moral movements that insist there is something to life beyond the mere material. People of the Responsible Self are people for whom ordinary wiving and thriving is enough of a challenge, thank you very much. And People of the Subordinate Self are people barely making it in their lives, looking for any rock to hang onto.

In my view, it is fine for People of the Creative Self to yearn for a deeper meaning in life, but not on my dime, pal. And it is fine for People of the Responsible Self to focus on the basics of obeying the law, going to work, and following the rules, but I would gently suggest to them to raise their eyes occasionally to the horizon. And it is understandable for the People of the Subordinate Self to grab any sort of free stuff that is going, but maybe there is something more stable and less desperate than grabbing out at whatever is going.

Yeah, what a concept: raise you gaze a little!

But meanwhile the Democrats have laid their bed with the scratchy, flea-infested rug of impeachment, and they have nothing else to keep them warm at night.