Just a thought: Calling & losing a House vote for impeachment would be catastrophic

[ehrnst]

63. Well the negative consequences must be considered.

It's not like we have nothing to lose by impeaching, and need to balance that with what can be gained. We could lose any chance of taking back the Senate. Taking back the Senate and keeping the House is vital to reversing Trump's damage. What happened to Democratic Senators in Red States during the Kavanaugh confirmation vote should be a lesson.

https://beta.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2018/09/20/democratic-senators-in-red-states-are-in-a-lose-lose-situation/

For me, that question is like asking whether it was worth it to prosecute George Zimmerman for murdering Trayvon Martin. After all, the jury was likely to be full of racist gun humpers who would acquit him.

First off, impeachment is not a judicial proceeding, it's a political one. It has no power whatsoever to stop him or punish him from doing anything. A shooting is different, because it's a judicial proceeding, there is no real option other than to proceed with a criminal trial process within the judicial system.

And yes, I do think a losing vote would be an effective way to respond to Trump's crimes.

What "justice" do you think will come from an impeachment? Knowing that it won't lead to shortening his term by a single minute, nor will it stop him from doing anything that he's doing now. Knowing that it will completely energize/enrage his supporters, who would not believe a single thing that Democratic leaders reveal in impeachment hearings - just like they did with the Mueller testimony.

Again - there are reasons that even you must admit that we don't impeach Kavanaugh right now, even though it would 'respond' to Mitch stealing a SCOTUS seat from Obama. We don't do it because we know that it won't do a damn bit of good even if we could remove him, because Trump can just replace him with someone worse and we still couldn't block the nomination.

It's not always black/white win/lose.