House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, urging Democrats to slow down impeachment talk, infamously said, “Trump is goading us to impeach him. … He knows that it would be very divisive in the country, but he doesn't really care. He just wants to solidify his base." In a rational world, that kind of strategy might make sense. Maybe. But we’re living in this surreal modern-day America, where the president and his fans cheer the idea of murdering immigrants. And so three truths apply:
First of all, what Democrats do is irrelevant. If the facts don’t help Traitor Trump, he’ll make some up to fit his narratives. For example, no mother and her doctor are huddling post-birth debating whether to murder any newborn babies, but that’s not stopping Trump from making such outrageous and outlandish claims. So Democrats should do what they want to do, what is right, because what Trump eventually says will have zero bearing on reality anyway.
Second of all, we’re already divided. That is self-evident.
And lastly, what’s this notion of Trump needing to solidify his base? Holy crap those deplorables are solidified!
Republicans LOVELOVELOVE Trump. Those numbers haven’t budged more than a point here and there the entire length of this presidency. Nothing will budge them up or down in any significant manner. Trump will relentlessly feed them red meat, most of it fiction, while Fox News, conservative radio and internet, and the white supremacist dark web amplify and cheer that fiction from the sidelines.
Democrats have to get comfortable accepting that 2020 won’t be a persuadable election, it’ll be a base-turnout one (just like 2018). There are more of us, and Democrats need to make sure they are responsive to the needs and demands of that base, because if our people vote (black voters, Latinos, Asians, young voters, single women, urban whites), there’s nothing Trump can do to make up the difference.