Do you think that Donald Trump is a disgrace to the presidency, a danger to the republic, a cancer on the body politic? Do you think that his Ukrainian adventures were so blatantly transactional, so obviously inappropriate, so outlandishly unpresidential, that even Republicans must hound this unmitigated scoundrel from office?
Are you, in other words, a Democrat?
If so, I am sympathetic to your position; I would like to see Trump exit office as rapidly as possible, and expect to vote for the 2020 Democratic nominee, even though I expect to hate virtually every single thing said nominee does once in office.
But if you want Republicans — and not just the occasional squishy libertarian — to go along, you’ll need a piece of advice I once got from the father of a large brood: “Don’t make it hard to be good.”
By this, he meant that a repentant scofflaw should be offered kindness, not your residual anger. If you want kids to do the right thing, make being good more pleasant than the alternative. Corollary: Democrats, you should impeach only if you genuinely want to remove the president from office, not just to position yourselves for 2020. And because you’ll need 20 Republican senators to accomplish that, you should make it as easy as possible for conservatives to join the effort.
Don’t shower invective on conservatives; if anyone must be denounced, let it be Trump and Trump alone. Greet each new convert to Team Impeachment with a warm “Welcome, brothers and sisters!” rather than a grudging “What took you so long?”
You should do these things because if Trump is truly an existential threat to the nation, your sole priority should be his expeditious removal. Also because it’s hard to slam partisan Republicans for cravenly supporting Trump if you yourself remain more interested in your prior political goals, and lingering grievances, than building a coalition to get him out.
Sir Tainley
Article URL : https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/10/02/please-dont-make-it-too-hard-republicans-get-impeachment-train/