...pop your bubble.
This diary grew out of a conversation here today that was a debate about the calls for impeachment between those who called the Democrats cowardly for “keeping their powder dry” and those who like me, think premature attempts at impeachment are dangerous. Kossack Dart10 started it off for me with his solid analysis and I particularly loved his use of the word:
incautious.
In these crazy times it is easy to see action, any action as positive, but in reality, IMO, there has never been a time in my lifetime, when we must consider our actions more. We all accept this when we are watching or reading a thriller. No hero of these tales rushes in.
It is up to us now, to do the hardest thing in a crisis. THINK. CONSIDER.
As I remarked in my earlier comment:
Even w/the house, we could not impeach Trump as things stand today because the senate would not go along with it. Failed impeachment.
ONLY if we took the house and senate and/or if Mueller’s report is so odious that republicans have no choice is impeachment a possibility.
Furthermore, incautious calls for impeachment are like viagra for republicans when it comes to voting. What was limp becomes ready to rock.
“Keeping your powder dry” doesn’t mean you never use it. It means timing is everything.
There was some good responses, my favorite having to do with, paraphrasing, when you aim to take a shot this big, make sure your aim is true.
Then, later today I happened to be surfing around and read this article from the Huffington Post.
www.huffingtonpost.com/…
It is about the various polls since Helsinki. Please read in full, won’t take long, and I’m not going to repeat the entire article, but it’s well worth your consideration.
Short take, in HP’s survey, those who favored Trump’s actions exceeded those who disapproved. Other noteworthy polls, such as CBS, had the opposite results. Author of the HP article thinks one of the reasons their survey looked different, was because of the questions they asked, and how they framed them. We all know it’s all about that.
But because HP took the tact it did, which first questioned the state of mind of its respondents as opposed to a black or white question, some interesting findings come out. Yes, it’s only one survey but the results are believable to me and these are the quotes that stand out:
The most positive is a new HuffPost/YouGov survey, in which 40 percent of Americans say they approve of Trump’s meeting and news conference with Vladimir Putin, while 36 percent disapprove
Regarding independents and non voters, this:
Non-voters and third-party voters narrowly approve, 35 percent to 26 percent, with a 40 percent plurality undecided.
Yep, 40% in that group, undecided. Un-freaking believable to those of us here, but there you have it. And then there’s this:
But compared to the partisans, they mostly didn’t see the issue as top of mind. More than half of the non-voters asked said they hadn’t really been paying attention to the news. Others focused on news beyond the Russia summit ― such as updates on the Thai cave rescue, local car thefts.
And this:
Broader public opinion about Trump’s handling of Russia has been notably resistant to change, even as news stories have piled up about special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian meddling. A poll conducted last week, just after the indictment of 12 Russian hackers, found Americans’ views still basically unmoved from where they’d been more than a year prior.
Now it is not my aim to be a Debby Downer here. And if you do read the entire article there ARE some positive results to be had for our side. NO snap shot poll is worth a whole lot, but if you’re like me, I certainly thought Helsinki would have moved the dial just a bit. And maybe as other surveys say, it did. But we don’t know that and we won’t know that.
Still, imo, Democratic representatives are wise to keep their powder dry on impeachment right now, and go after the mid terms as FIRST, local politics, but with a strong second of discrediting Trump. Neither alone will do, must be both and finely balanced.
Yes, it is quite a challenge. But one I believe with all my heart we can meet, even if it’s just, and most likely, taking over the house---this will neutralize Trump more in ways than you can’t even imagine right this minute, no matter how politically astute you are.
No, I don’t think we’re going to get help from Mueller before the mid terms, other than drip, drip drip. I’d love to be wrong about this, but I don’t think I am.
So as it always must be in a Democratic Republic, it is up to “we the people” in the mid terms. That’s how I see it. It’s not about impeachment or Mueller, IMO, it’s about spending every last drop of energy we have as activists in getting the mid term Democratic vote out. It’s everything right now.
After that we can take a breath, and talk about impeachment again, although without the senate I still say it’s folly. But one step at a time. Don’t expect our Democratic representatives to loudly float impeachment, when this country loudly rebuked them in 2016 and they have been powerless since.
If we want to impeach, we are going to have to come from a place of power. Period. And the only way we’re going to get that is thru our votes.
One step at a time. NOW, it’s all about the mid terms.