The forthcoming attempt to impeach President Trump will be the fourth such endeavor in our nation’s history, but it is unique for a number of reasons.
For one thing, this impeachment began almost before the news networks had called the election. Although we may find in time that illegalities were indeed committed, they were never the reason this began.
Richard Nixon committed crimes — he ordered a break-in and then lied about it. Bill Clinton committed a crime — he lied under oath and then lied about it. Whether Trump committed an actual crime still is uncertain, but to many of his critics, this barely matters. They find him so unhinged and erratic as to be an inherent threat to the country simply by virtue of being president. They view him as corrupting the state from within.
An impeachable charge is whatever Congress decides it is, as Gerald Ford once said, and he would know because this is what made him president. If this is the standard, Trump could be impeached not for one clear and outstanding sin but for a number of small and less clear ones if their cumulative effect were overwhelming. Some would be glad to impeach him for the penumbra around him and to oust him on this count alone.
It’s common to say there are two solid blocs in the country — a self-styled “Resistance” that despises Trump completely no matter what, and a red-hatted army of fervent, at times cult-like supporters. But this is not wholly true. There is a large bloc between the two. Part of it comprises people who voted for Trump and, in fact, still support him, and who believe that his administration has been good for the country, but who hold him in very low esteem.
Pollster Ed Goeas says that Trump’s persona could be his undoing. Pollster Frank Luntz concurs in this verdict.
“A majority of the public like what Donald Trump has been doing and a majority of the public don’t like what he’s saying,” Luntz says. In September, Philip Bump of the Washington Post wrote recently that while exit polls on Election Day found that 61% of voters didn’t think Trump was qualified, nearly a fifth of these chose him anyway. He also quoted an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll from a week earlier, which showed that while 44% approved of his policies, only half of those supporters liked him as a human being.
“How much of Trump’s support derives from people who don’t particularly like him?” Bump asked. And he answered: “A lot.”
This is the strength that got Trump elected, but it is also a weakness. Some of his voters are drawn to the non-stop commotion and disruption. A great many others find it exhausting. In the course of a credible impeachment process and trial, these might decide that keeping him around is after all not worth all the trouble when a Pence presidency is the alternative.
If the case against Trump seems a bit lacking, so does the backing he gets from some of his voters. This means that the coming impeachment proceedings could play out in unusual ways.
