Maybe he doesn’t realize, but he’s essentially backed the Democrats into a corner. If they accept this behavior, then they’ve all but conceded his re-election and maybe all future elections as this becomes the new go-to political strategy, using all the coercive power of the state to drum up phony investigations and charges against anyone that looks like a threat. Especially in places with state media like China, Russia, or Ukraine. The more embarrassing, the better. I think the Democrats are fighting for their survival at this point.

Is that too strong?

The weird thing is that Trump’s behavior is based on his beliefs in the conspiracy theories and lies that originated within the fringe and not-so-fringe right to explain away the truths that weren’t helpful and to distort reality enough to get him re-elected.

But Trump is so dumb and incompetent that he’s looking at impeachment instead because he apparently believes the alternate facts.

I am with you, and I went through the same back and forth about which path was best. However, I still think impeachment is politically dangerous, and could very well cause the Democrats more trouble in the next election. That said, it seems the constitutionally mandated response to such behavior. If we don’t do it now, I don’t know when we would. To my mind, it all ends up as “it is the right thing to do.” But to anyone who proposes that this will make a Democratic challenger the next president, think again. It has a more than likely chance of causing the opposite.

conspiracy theories,
lies,
deception,
obfuscation,
whataboutery,
false equivalencies, and
fear-mongering.

We can see such intellectual sloth coming directly from the White House, from Russian troll farms, and from U.S. White Evangelicals as evidenced in recent comment section spamming.

I would like this essay 100 times if I could. Has anyone noticed how Pelosi has mentioned several times in interviews of how she came to impeachment that “we’re a republic, if we can keep it?”