Various diaries and comments on diaries have repeatedly attempted to show the “We have to have a vote to impeach Trump now and Nancy Pelosi sucks because she just won’t let it come to a vote and she’s in the tank for someone-or-other yada yada yada...” people that a big reason why Speaker Pelosi won’t hold an impeachment vote is that it won’t pass. These people have been ridiculed relentlessly.
And yet…
Al Green’s forcing of a vote on a resolution for the House to take up Impeachment proceedings, ddied Wednesday. Only 95 Democrats voted in favor of it. That’s about 40% of the Democratic caucus in the House, far, far short of the 218 votes needed for passage.
So, as many people have pointed out in recent months… what good does it do for Speaker Pelosi to allow for a vote on impeachment proceedings if the resolution fails?
Right now, Trump is crowing about the resolution being shot down. "I just heard that the US House of Representatives has overwhelmingly voted to kill the most ridiculous project I have ever been involved in. The resolution -- how stupid is that -- on impeachment," he said.
There you go, folks. Al Green couldn’t even break 50% of the Democratic caucus on the vote. That’s where impeachment is at right now, and people have tried, tried, tried to tell you the votes aren’t there and it will be a political disaster for Democrats if Pelosi brings a serious attempt to the floor and it tanks miserably. The response has been predictable — “since when are moral actions dictated by politics?” Well, since politics dictate whether those morals actually have any impact, that’s when. In 1861 Abraham Lincoln could have pushed for abolition right out of the gate, but doing so probably would have resulted in the border states seceding and in turn quite possibly resulted in the Union losing the Civil War outright. Would it have been the more moral thing to do? Sure. Would it have backfired? Probably spectacularly. If moral purity is the only test of a decision, well, I hate to say it but the reality is that there are indeed a lot of shades of gray in politics. So ponder a moment if the symbolism of a failed impeachment vote in the House (even ignoring the probability of a fail to convict in the Senate) is worth the political price of possibly boosting Trump and his cronies in 2020.
You want Trump out of the White House? So do the rest of us. But right now, today, the votes Just. Aren’t. There.