Put another way: Are Trump critics ready to let him appoint judges for another four years because Democrats in Congress couldn’t make impeachment stick? Are they ready to find out what happens if this country’s divisions are magnified even more? Are they completely certain that impeachment will make things better?
There are plenty of good, smart counterarguments to all of this: Trump’s corruption vastly outweighs Clinton’s; the GOP Congress under Gingrich badly overreached; Trump has never had the personal popularity to make him resilient through the impeachment process the way Clinton was 20 years ago, so that potential backlash against Democrats doesn’t loom as large. These are all good points.
But the truth is that nobody really knows what will happen. Impeachment is like war: You can make plans, but once it’s set in motion, anything is possible — and the unanticipated consequences of impeaching Trump can be pretty scary indeed. Pelosi would be unwise to abandon the idea of impeachment entirely, but she hasn’t done that. She is wise to be cautious, however.
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