There are strategic merits to all these arguments. But they leave many Americans terrified by Trump’s erratic behavior and incompetence feeling marooned, confused as to why their leaders aren’t treating this presidency like the civic emergency that it is. At some point, we need politicians to address the crisis in front of us. “We have a democracy to protect and a republic to save, and that’s what this is all about,” Green told me.
Obviously, no matter how grave the threat, a Republican-controlled Congress has little incentive to act. But even if Democrats retake the House in 2018, Sherman told me, impeachment “would still require a change in public opinion.”
This is why Steyer’s campaign is potentially useful, even if at first glance it seems quixotic. Sure, it’s hard to imagine anyone who doesn’t already despise the president being convinced by the earnest plea of a filthy-rich California climate activist. But Steyer is aiming at movement-building; he wants to reach people who desperately want Trump gone but don’t know what to do about it. “We’re asking electeds to stand up for the right thing, but we’re going to American citizens to ask them to demand it,” he said.
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