If Twitter and the fever swamps of the progressive movement fairly represented the American electorate, Maxine Waters might get her wish. As it stands, however, Nancy Pelosi appears to have her finger more firmly on the pulse of the electorate — even among Democrats. That didn’t stop Waters from attempting to raise the alarm this morning:

Unfortunately, many Members of Congress whisper the President should be impeached but have not supported my call for impeachment. Only a few of us dare to continue to urge both Dems and Repubs to impeach this dangerous president. I will keep trying. The public needs to demand!

— Maxine Waters (@RepMaxineWaters) March 21, 2019

This clarion call apparently got prompted by Kellyanne Conway’s appearance on Fox News to scold her husband for attacking Trump in public. She gave George Conway an attaboy while scolding Kellyanne for not siding with her “loving husband.” (Side note: who knew the patriarchy had co-opted Maxine Waters?)

Kellyanne Conway, the "alternative fact" is your husband George is absolutely correct. Who do you support, your loving husband or this unhinged president?

— Maxine Waters (@RepMaxineWaters) March 21, 2019

Right on,@gtconway3d! The facts are mounting. More and more psychiatrists describe #45 as detached from reality, volatile, & attracted to violence. Members of Congress have introduced legislation questioning Trump's sanity. America beware!

— Maxine Waters (@RepMaxineWaters) March 21, 2019

More and more psychiatrists give diagnoses without examining the patient? Maybe Congress should do something about that. That seems to have been one of the ways in Rick Singer prospered before getting busted by Operation Varsity Blues, too.

With all of this going on — or at least with Waters alleging so — why is Pelosi backing away from impeachment? It’s because the public is clearly not rising up despite the hysteria from the progressive fever swamps. In fact, to paraphrase Samuel Goldwyn, they’re sitting down in droves. Polling shows a rapid decline in support for impeachment since the elections, and since it became more obvious that voters can make that decision for themselves soon enough anyway.

That should be a lesson to the rest of the Democratic Party and its slate of presidential contenders, I argue in my column at The Week:

The lesson here? Impeachment may drive the activists, but it’s leaving voters colder and colder as they get distance from the 2018 midterms. Pelosi may want to excuse the change in strategy by claiming that Senate Republicans wouldn’t cooperate anyway, but the real problem is that Democrats are already losing the impeachment argument, and have been for months. Pelosi’s smart enough to recognize it and spin it by dismissing Trump as “not worth it.”

This should teach Democrats a lesson in their upcoming presidential primary, too. Thus far, candidates have pandered hard to the activist left in attempting to stake out their own ground in the crowded field. Even Joe Biden, who could own the moderate lane if he chooses to run, declared, “I have the most progressive record of … anybody who would run.” John Hickenlooper, an entrepreneur who made a fortune by starting out in small business, ran away from capitalism in order to protect his flank from attacks by socialists.

Perhaps before the 2018 election, the hatred some voters had for Trump papered over distinct divisions within the opposition to his presidency. But the collapse in support for impeachment should have Democratic candidates rethinking their approach. The progressive agenda, especially in regard to Trump, might cut them off from the center of the electorate and hand Trump a win in 2020.

Pelosi was smart enough to read the writing on the wall. Waters … not so much.