Will threat of impeachment motivate Republican/Trump voters?
A necessary, though not sufficient, strategy for the midterms.
It’s pretty clear that Democrats are more motivated to vote. Much of that is the nature of opposition — it gets people more excited to be against something than to be for something.
That explains the Republican surge in 2010 against Obama, and midterm surges against just about every other president in the past several decades.
#TheResistance, as deranged and psychotic as it is, nonetheless gets people onto the streets, and into the voting booths.
It’s going to take a massive swing to Democrats to retake the House, but almost no one is saying that’s an impossibility. Retaking the Senate would be a much tougher road for Democrats, but the House is the more reachable goal and the one Democrats want the most.
That’s because the House can vote to impeach. Sure, a trial would be in the Senate, but what Democrats most want is to be able to say Trump was impeached. Maxine Waters and others have been demanding impeachment since before Trump was president.
Billionaire Tom Steyer is building a massive political organization devoted to impeachment.
Talk of impeachment also has saturated mainstream and left-leaning media.
Impeachment, however, could be a motivator for Republicans. Lacking any other apparent issue this year to get Republican and Trump voters off their rear ends and into the voting booth, maybe the threat of impeachment is the ticket.
The NY Times reports:
As Republican leaders scramble to stave off a Democratic wave or at least mitigate their party’s losses in November, a strategy is emerging on the right for how to energize conservatives and drive a wedge between the anti-Trump left and moderate voters: warn that Democrats will immediately move to impeach President Trump if they capture the House.
What began last year as blaring political hyperbole on the right — the stuff of bold-lettered direct mail fund-raising pitches from little-known groups warning of a looming American “coup” — is now steadily drifting into the main currents of the 2018 message for Republicans.
The appeals have become a surefire way for candidates to raise small contributions from grass-roots conservatives who are devoted to Mr. Trump, veteran Republican fund-raisers say. But party strategists also believe that floating the possibility of impeachment can also act as a sort of scared-straight motivational tool for turnout.
Perhaps the best evidence that the threat of impeachment will motivate Republican/Trump voters is that some senior Democrats are upset with the focus on impeachment, as we reported last November.
Something needs to light a fire under Republican/Trump voters or there will be a double whammy — Nancy Pelosi as Speaker, and Maxine Waters leading an impeachment effort.
That may not be a sufficient strategy, because Republicans are themselves suppressing the vote by passing massive deficits and infighting.
Nonetheless, a focus on impeachment probably is a necessary part of a strategy since even small percentage gains in turnout could make a difference.
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Comments
Everyone should be working against impeachment. If Trump we’re removed from office, it would result in violent schism in the country. Bad violence.
From whom? Trump’s people? That’s a stunning admission. Or threat.
Besides, if the situation were reversed, would you hesitate to remove 0bama, or a President Clinton, or, Gawdhelpusall, a President Sean King, merely for fear of violence from his or her supporters? Or would you say “bring it on”?
The problem with your logic is that Trump has not committed an impeachable offense.
If a corrupt fascist cabal – enabled by the rats of the GOPe – tries to usurp the election, we would ‘bring it on.’
Interpret it how you like.
“The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.”
Jefferson
What the man with the brain the size of a planet doesn’t get is that there is probably a lot more legal basis for removing either the Black Baby Jesus or Clinton from office for real crimes than there is of removing Trump from office because he triggers liberals due to him saying mean things about their mommas!
Obama and HRC aren’t in office. They have been removed.
This whole impeachment thing is just another scare tactic to win an election. It has nothing to do with reality. But the Republican machine loves to scare their base with conspiracy theories; “they’re going to take your guns”, they’re going to destroy your religion”, they’re going to make you gay”……..Calm down folks, it is their time to use you again!
While “This whole impeachment thing is just another scare tactic…” the main purpose is to slow down the actions of Congress and prevent the Congress from overturning the prior regime’s march towards socialism, just like Mueller’s “investigation”. If they can’t remove President Trump from office, the very least they can do is slow down/stop/mire any/all (conservative) legislative action for the next few years.
If Trump broke laws as President I would be all for impeaching him. The reality is he has been the target of a conspiracy to remove him from office and has done nothing to merit impeachment. It seems we have a two tiered Justice system. One for the Clinton’s and their minions and one for everyone else.
We have seen no evidence that Trump has broken any laws. But, we have seen stunning evidence that laws were broken in an attempt to remove him from office.
If Trump broke laws as President I would be all for impeaching him. The reality is he has been the target of a conspiracy to remove him from office and has done nothing to merit impeachment. It seems we have a two tiered Justice system. One for the Clinton’s and their minions and one for everyone else.
Worse yet, we would have that goofy Mike Pence in charge. He would make Don look stable and competent.
You would think people would be motivated to keep the country out of the clutches of the fascist left and their corrupt stooges of the GOPe.
If that’s not enough, they deserve what will come their way.
Unfortunately it isn’t as cut and dried an issue for many voters who don’t follow politics and the news as many of us who post here do. The continual attacks against Trump from the media, from the idiots like Maxine Waters, Pelosi, Schumer, can tamp down the enthusiasm, plus, just as when Duh One was elected by a number of people who wanted to be part of history, some love to see people in power toppled. This is an attempted coup, and when you add up the pieces because you’ve been following it, it looks really clear that nefarious deeds are being done, but far too many are ignorant. Just look around the world to see how stupid a voting populous can be even when they vote against their own best interests.
But I and my family don’t deserve what would come with an impeachment
You would if it’s President Pence, leading the #counterresistance. That would be a good result.
Pence might not be all that strong given how Trump has been treated. When the person you won with gets taken out by an out of control deep state operation, you know you will be next, and I’m not sure he would be able to handle the press all that well. While I like what he has shown, I am not convinced he can lead against the likes of what would have removed Trump. Seems he would be somewhat neutered.
In a perverse way, it may prove the nadir of Obama-Clinton progressives for 2020 and going forward. Time to loosen their stranglehold on culture and institutions. Trump could emerge more popular than ever.
What began last year as blaring political hyperbole on the right […] No, it didn’t. The “bold-lettered direct mail fund-raising pitches from little-known groups” picked up on it, but it started exactly where Prof J says, on the left, with the likes of Waters, Steyer, etc. Pelosi & Co tried to shut them up but couldn’t.
Impeachment, however, could be a motivator for Republicans.
It might … if the Republicans weren’t such unreliable flakes.
The Flake party has the Executive and both houses of the Legislature. This is the strongest position any party can possibly have. And these losers still can’t get it up to—
Cleanse the country of the Obamacare disaster—
Protect the country from the alien crime wave on the border—
Steamroller the D’rats for their unceasing efforts to castrate the Bill of Rights—
It would take an act of Old Testament faith to believe that this useless bunch would perform any better at torpedoing a D’rat vote of impeachment. Like the Communists (sorry, like the other Communists), the D’rats know what Party discipline is.
The R’s will do a lot of whining about “holdouts”, and make well-publicized attempts to jolly the traitors along, but in the end, the pestilential D’rats will win … again.
In order to motivate anyone to bother to get out of bed to vote for them, the R’s must either come up with some worthwhile candidates who seem to be something other than lying dirtbags—and there are none such looming on the horizon—or transform the Party into one which actually means something. And they can do that by doing something useful, more useful than putting on a feeble show of ineffective resistance to the D’rat agenda of ruin and decay. It’s not like there’s a shortage of opportunities to do something useful, they just can’t seem to take advantage of any of them. Something relatively simple; not like magically balancing the budget, which would require that Congress be reorganized beyond recognizability, since it’s simply not the way Congress is set up to work. And not necessarily something expensive like The Wall, as lots of money is involved and that makes things much harder to defend from D’rat depredation.
Maybe a serious defense—with some serious legislation—defending both the First and Second Amendments. Not much money involved, and no really difficult policy complications—all that’s needed is enough votes, and the willpower to follow the instructions printed on the back of the box. And it would transform the Republican Party back into the great American beast it was in the 1860s.
“It might … if the Republicans weren’t such unreliable flakes…”
You give those corrupt, backstabbing rino rats WAY too much credit.
Their betrayals against us have been bought and paid for many times over.
McConnell and Chao: As Corrupt As The Clintons:
https://www.redstate.com/joesquire/2018/03/19/mcconnell-chao-corrupt-clintons/
I’m afraid your conclusion is wrong. Some of the retiring GOP critters are actually going after Trump as one of the reasons they are leaving. I would venture a guess that about 50% of the GOP would not use impeachment of Trump as a campaign slogan nor ask for his personal help in their re-elections. These people are not Republicans. They use that avatar to get into office but then become denizens of the swamp. Because we have no term limits, it makes more sense to side with the power in DC than the people at home.
Impeachment would be seen as a coup, Deep State negating legitimate election of President on a trumped up collusion narrative fabricated by the Clinton campaign and the FBI.
“If you think this has a happy ending, you haven’t been paying attention” – Ramsey, Game of Thrones
So what happens when Mueller charges Trump with crimes associated with his illegal activities involving the Russians in the run up to the 2016 elections, particularly under the Constitution’s Emoluments Clause. The purpose of the clause was to prevent foreign governments from buying influence in the U.S. by paying off U.S. government officials.
That freight train continues to speed down the tracks, unstoppable by any election results.
“So what happens when Mueller charges Trump with crimes…”
The rats of the GOPe go dancing happily down the isle with the left, laughing at us all the way.
Going forward, we need to make them cry.
You really need to lay off the hallucinogens.
Doood, there is no likelihood of there being any action under the Emoluments Clause.
The bar of proof would be WAY too high.
Not to say “impossible”, but only that there’s nothing now known that support that case. It’s not enough for Duh Donald to have made money in or around Russia or Russians.
1) The foreign emoluments clause does not apply to the president.
2) Even if it did, Trump hasn’t come even close to breaking it. There is not even the slightest trace of a hint of evidence that any foreign government has bought influence by paying Trump.
So if Mueller were to bring such charges they would be vigorously resisted, and he would have earned an ignominious dismissal.
(There’s plenty of evidence that Saudi Arabia has bought influence in the State Dept by providing sinecures after retirement for those officials who have pleased it during their time in Foggy Bottom. Since there is no agreement in advance with any specific official, and all payments are made after retirement, the clause is not being broken.)
Id be interested to know exactly what you believe were his illegal activities with teh ruuuuskies you speak ok?
The media hasn’t been able to highlight what these activities are…the democrats haven’t been able to do that either…and now I suspect you will just blather and waffle and wave your hands about as the sum total of your evidence.
Mueller can’t charge Trump with anything. All he can do is present it to the DoJ for them to prosecute or not.
“So what happens when Mueller charges Trump with crimes associated with his illegal activities involving the Russians in the run up to the 2016 elections”
Depends. Are getting Kevin Spacey to play Mueller? Because I’m not sure he will still be in his prime by the time the actual investigation ends.
Art V COS Amend Art1 Section 8 clause 2 to “approval of 3/4 state legislatures” for 2020 elections nationally and at state level. So simple it might work. Yo KISS
“As of March 2018, it has been adopted by ten states and the District of Columbia. Together, they have 165 electoral votes, which is 30.7% of the total Electoral College and 61.1% of the votes needed to give the compact legal force.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Popular_Vote_Interstate_Compact
About as likely as obama making it as a pitcher in a woman’s softball league.
Um, what? Article I § 8 is the enumeration of Congress’s powers. The second clause is Congress’s power “To borrow money on the credit of the United States”. You wand to amend that to what? “To borrow money on the credit of the United States subject to the approval of 3/4 state legislatures”? How is this relevant to the topic? And how do the 2020 elections figure in this?
Maybe some of the Democratic rank and file, like Maxine Waters, would support impeachment, but the heads of the Democratic Party are not politically suicidal. They TALK of impeachment to motivate their base to get out and vote, but if push came to shove, they’d realize that going through the motions of an impeachment would rile up the country against them . Those trying the case on national TV would expose themselves as corrupt and incompetent, having no actual case against President Trump.
Is there a threat of impeachment.
OK, maybe impeachment, but never a conviction in the Senate.
It takes a 2/3rds vote to convict. If the Democrats won every seat in the November election, they would still need 10 Republicans to convict. There aren’t that may stupid RINOs out there.
I was more of a supporter until Mr. president said’Take the guns then worry about Due Process” as it displayed his lack of understanding of the Constitution,particularly the 4 th.,as related to the 2 nd. Does that call for impeachment ,no,further fidelity to the Constitution,Yes.
My own personal observations of what has done the Democrats in as of late with swing voters is that they don’t seem to give a d*** about the issues that average people care about. There is nothing more self-centered for a party than to pursue, especially without a real reason, the impeachment of a President of the opposite party and for this reason the impeachment talk will doom the Democrats as a party that has no interest in doing anything for voters but is only focused on power. The reason Trump won Independents is his promise to at least attempt to push the country forward. Impeachment is the opposite of that and voters will not take away Republican seats to hand to Impeachment Democrats. I don’t think they flip hardly any seats and here in Minnesota they will lose some.
Impeachment, anti-white, anti-Christian, anti-Semitic, open borders, open bathrooms, and open season on cops — there, that about covers it.
You forgot “anti-2nd Amendment” and “anti-gun.”
By November, saying that a Democrat majority will impeach Donald Trump will be considered crazy talk and be verboten to acknowledge.
The Democrat media machine and their late night jesters will manage to both fire-up the left to show up to vote so Trump can be impeached while simultaneously mocking anyone who points that out.
Clown nose on/clown nose off.
reading the article and comments I finally understand why the Democratic (read: Socialist-Progressive) Party are all in lockstep marching to impeach President Trump; they’ve nothing else to offer their voters
True, but the Democrats face a catch-22. They need the illegal and homeless votes to win elections.
In order to maintain large enough immigrants and the homeless populations, whose votes keep them in power, they are losing their citizen voters who are not liking that the fact that their home-towns are becoming destination resorts for aliens who commit violent crimes as well as toilets for the human wreckage created the homeless problem.
They can’t maintain their power without those votes. So they have nothing to lose by going all out to maintain them.
If the Feds are willing to raid Donald Trump’s lawyer’s office, do you think they’ll hesitate to come after your lawyer? Priest? Doctor? SPOUSE? Privileged communication is now dead in the USA.
Vote on that!
Congress has the Facebook Nazi giving an interview today before committee and they aren’t even putting him under oath.