re: #51 Jay C

2. How have “the Dems fumbled the ball”? Because Trump is still in office? SRSLY?

If you read the Peter Daou piece I linked a bit earlier, it comes down to a more fundamental point re values:

The dichotomy between the glowing perceptions of Pelosi and her real world actions is perfectly illustrated by her now-iconic clap during Trump’s 2019 State of the Union speech. To this day, that gesture is put forth as incontrovertible proof that Pelosi alone has the power to “rattle” Trump. In reality, Pelosi confirmed that she was clapping for Trump. “It wasn’t sarcastic,” Pelosi explained. The Democratic Speaker — the party leader — felt it was appropriate to applaud a president who has stoked neo-Nazi terrorism, abused migrant families, incited violence against the free press, coddled dictators, alienated allies, and who poses (according to her) a “threat” to the Constitution.

To add insult to injury, Pelosi has willingly given Trump legislative wins that will boost his reelection chances, including extending the Patriot Act, passing a massive military budget with a “Space Force,” and bizarrely, announcing a trade bill an hour after Democratic leaders unveiled Articles of Impeachment. Perhaps most egregiously, as Trump was torturing asylum-seeking families in the spring of 2019, Pelosi said she was praying for him and that she and Chuck Schumer “had hoped to give him a signature infrastructure achievement.”
…
Unfortunately for America and the world, Pelosi’s impeachment-lite approach — where Trump is effectively exonerated for every heinous abuse of power except trying to cheat to beat Joe Biden — is an epic failure, with a slim majority of Americans in a recent USA TODAY/Suffolk University poll opposing conviction and removal in the Senate.

The argument about giving trump a “legislative win” is one Rick Wilson had made as well, and I interpret the subtext as, “low-info voters are far too dumb to figure out the whole “act like an adult” nuance - they think in black and white terms, so if Dems are willing to work with trump on some issues, he must not be that bad after all. Muddled messaging, in other words. And the whole “crimes against humanity aren’t impeachable but a policy difference” has deeply sinister connotations, as well (though if Pelosi made a political calculus that swing-state voters don’t give a shit about caged children, well…I guess that says more about certain segments of the American public than her).