The U.S. House impeachment hearings are proving that nearly four and a half years after Donald J. Trump came down a golden escalator at his New York City Trump Tower to announce his presidential run, Democrats still don't understand why the electorate rallied around and then elected the brash businessman.
We understand and agree with many voters about the 45th president's personality imperfections, but we don't believe his loyal opponents have yet grasped that trying to remove him from office only solidifies his supporters on why they elected him in the first place.
So, below are 10 reasons we believe impeachment - which we have said is likely to occur (with acquittal in the Senate) - is bad for Democrats:
1. They haven't grasped Trump's personality. The president is not a statesman, he's a businessman. His phone calls to foreign leaders will never be filled with geopolitics and statecraft. His July phone call to the Ukraine president, with a suggestion to look into what seemed like fishy dealings with former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter, was a businessman asking what might get done and not a president making policy.
2. They didn't understand what the electorate wanted. With impeachment, the Russian special counsel investigation, the smear of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, and continued opposition to Trump's nominees and his proposals, Democrats are reminding voters of the eight years under Barack Obama when they believed the country was being governed against their interests by a man who didn't care what they thought.
3. They haven't let Trump govern. Although Democrats have opposed everything he does and put stumbling blocks in his way wherever possible, Trump nevertheless energized a struggling economy, cut taxes, trimmed business stifling regulations, appointed two conservative Supreme Court justices and helped end fighting with the Islamic State. Voters wonder what might be accomplished in health care, infrastructure and trade if Democrats work with him.
4. They see impeachment as Mueller 2.0. Democrats have been trying to bring down Trump since before he became president. They thought they had him with special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation of Russian involvement in the 2016 presidential election. When the man they counted on said there was no collusion on Trump's part and could not bring obstruction of justice charges, they needed something else. The secondhand report of a telephone call would have to do.
5. They place too much importance in a phone call. We believe it will be difficult to convince voters of the damning aspects of a conversation in which a president suggests a foreign leader look into a situation, perhaps even if the movement of aid for the country were to be convincingly connected to it. They remember well, after all, that Obama's whispered promise to Russian President Dmitri Medvedev about having more flexibility on missile defense "after my election" was supposedly harmless.
6. They don't see the unfairness of their process. Their impeachment inquiry was initiated by an unnamed whistleblower's secondhand understandings, some of which proved to be false. Then, Democrats blocked - or put impassable roadblocks on - Republicans from inviting key witnesses to testify and have not allowed Trump to have counsel at the hearings or to cross-examine his accusers.
7. They don't see their leaders as electoral poison. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi so turned off voters, her party was voted out of majority status in 2010. To retain some credibility after the party returned to power in 2018, she played down the possibility of impeachment, then caved to far left colleagues. And House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-California, seems to voters anything but a bipartisan, sober-minded arbiter.
8. Their polls leader may be sacrificed. Biden and his son, who got a high-paid board post for a Ukrainian oil company when his father was vice president, will be exposed if not in the House inquiry, then in a potential Senate trial. Though he is presently leading in polls for the Democratic nomination, Biden is not likely to come across in a positive light if the process moves forward.
9. They don't know what motivates the electorate. Despite attempting to scare voters that a recession was coming nearly two months ago before settling on the phone call as a way of getting rid of the president, Democrats don't have the wind at their backs since the economy continues to be solid and economic officials envision positive news for months to come.
10. They are counting on impeachment as a bank against re-election. The impossible promises and socialistic tendencies of most of their 2020 candidates make the election of one of them a reach, even against a president as offensive as Trump can be. Since it would be difficult for such a nominee to appeal to a wide range of voters, they are hoping to take Trump out or damage him enough that voters hold their nose and cast a ballot for their nominee.