I’ve pretty much lost faith in the House Dems doing anything at this point. And the thing is, I’m actually pretty sympathetic to the worries of fast tracking impeachment proceedings for reasons that have already been explained: the lack of public understanding of what impeachment actually means, the a la carte nature of TV and news nowadays working against attempts at grand proceedings, especially notable in how people are demanding the HOuse Dems pass bills on stuff they’ve already passed bills on and the like, and the problem of animating a backlash once the Senate and McConnell shuts it down as soon as it even starts.

But something has to be done, some kind of message has to be sent, we have to stop being afraid of the backlash of people who weren’t going to be voting Dem anyways, including the people who would be driven off by ‘overreach’ if Impeachment happened because face it, they’re the kind already giving Trump the benefit of the doubt he doesn’t deserve. We have to send a message that Trump cannot do this, that there’s some kind of check on him, because as it is now, he and the GOP are all kinds of emboldened. And if they can’t do this, the HOuse is kind of just showing how utterly subservient to the Senate it is, that it isn’t even an equal part of Congress much less an equal branch of the gov’t. Yes, it’d be symbolic, but symbolic gestures have purpose too, and right now, the lack of action on actually holding Trump accountable is depressing the part of the population most likely to come out for Dems and vote for the all important down-ticket races that are key. Yes, the presidency is important, but holy shit, we need the Senate too out of anything else. We need a population willing to vote for Dems because they see Dems as willing to act as the check on the Republicans.

I’m sympathetic to the calculus, I really am. Pelosi’s job is not an easy one, and there’s so much to juggle. Politics can be like herding cats at times. But we’re dangerously close to losing the Republic wholesale without even trying to fire a shot. it feels like Pelosi’s approach is relying too much on a process that’s already shown itself to be perverted for the sake of preserving ‘civility’ at the expense of action, a process that assumes too much good will to properly fight back against weaponized bad faith.