7. Highlight Trump’s defiance. Democrats will face headwinds as they push forward. Most voters think investigations of Trump are “distracting Congress from other national issues,” and in a CNN survey, 44 percent of Americans said Democrats were “doing too much … to investigate Donald Trump.” But on a different question in the same CNN poll, 54 percent said Trump was doing “too little … to cooperate with congressional Democrats investigating him.” The key is to focus attention on Trump’s behavior toward Congress, rather than on Congress’ behavior toward Trump. Two-thirds of Americans agree, for example, that the president should “release his tax returns for public review.” Democrats should constantly ask why he doesn’t.

8. The election is the impeachment. A formal impeachment would take months. Republicans would acquit Trump in the Senate, and he would use the fight to rally his base, accusing liberals in Congress of trying to overturn the election. Why play into his hands, when instead you could investigate him through the normal oversight process, present your hearings and findings to voters, and invite them to pass judgment on him a year from now?