I'm not as interested in impeachment as I should be

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Saying this impeachment inquiry is historic is not hype, it is only the fourth time US history tings have gotten this far.

But unlike next year's election, to me, I kind of know how it will play out the House will impeach and the Senate will acquit so all the testimony that so many are commenting about seems rather meaningless to me.

People's opinions of Trump are so strong I just can't see this impeachment and trail making a difference in what I really care about which is Trump reelected or is he not. The primaries do interest me in that I do think the Democratic nominee and how that person is presented will have some effect on the general election result.

While the testimony will be meaningless to the results the massive attention to it might not be. Watching the debate I got the feeling it was an afterthought, that the candidates and moderators had spent the last two days watching hour upon hour of impeachment coverage and had little mental energy left for the debate. I guess that was good for Biden as the frontrunner. What I am curious about is how do the Senators that are presidential candidates handle the very possible situation that Senate trial will occur during the primaries.

Technically I believe it's only the 3rd time this has happened. Nixon would have been impeached had he not quit, and would have probably been removed.

I think I feel the way you do. I have no desire to watch. I am content to learn what happened after the fact. Despite all the hype, I feel that the Democrats (this is a strictly partisan exercise) have a weak case, in other words you're only likely to think that Trump did something bad if you already don't like him. I think a lot of people feel that Hunter Biden is a likely criminal and that Trump can be forgiven for trying to obtain evidence against him even if he how he went about it was technically illegal. It's reminiscent of a cop show in which the cops beat a confession out of a perp they already know is guilty. The audience doesn't care that the cops broke the law so long as they succeed in getting the bad guy off the street.

This impeachment certainly won't convince anyone who planned to vote for Trump to change their mind and vote for whomever the Democrats nominate. It might inspire a few fence-sitters to vote Libertarian or something. People who don't like Trump feel the way they do because he has encouraged racism etc. or because of his immigration policies, but none of that is illegal and impeachable. Come to think of that, this impeachment is pretty much a mirror image of Clinton's impeachment. People hated Clinton and didn't hesitate to tell you that, but the articles of impeachment in that case had little to do with why they hated him. He was tried largely on the basis of having lied about an act of consensual sex, whereas his numerous episodes of abusing power to gain sexual favors (although the documented cases primarily occurred while Governor of Arkansas) never led to anything concrete on which his accusers could base a case.

You can't discount the possibility that the impeachment might get sympathy for Trump from voters who might otherwise not have bothered voting. Clinton was impeached in his 2nd term so we don't know what the effect might be. I can see how if Clinton had been facing re-election at the time, he could also have been re-elected on the basis of sympathy on the part of voters who felt the impeachment was unfair.

To me it's just a continuation of what has been going on ever since the blame for Hillary's loss magically went from being directed at James Comey to blaming Putin which started with the ridiculous Steele dossier and Putin's pee tape he was extorting the President with. Sheer utter bizarre nonsense that I don't see coming to an end as long as Trump is in office. Just as no one saw the sudden Ukraine deal based on something someone heard from someone, who heard it from someone, who heard it from someone else.

The Senate won’t vote for conviction.

Trump will look worse for some because of this impeachment probe. Others will see him as a martyr.

You'd think that will divide our country even more. But maybe, just maybe, if my cards are right it will somehow be used to unite our country together again?

Ya never know.

I wrote this is the the fourth time things have gotten this far which is technically true. With Nixon the impeachment process got further than where we are at now. The House Judiciary committee had voted to recommend several articles of impeachment to the full House when Nixon resigned.

Back in Nixon's day Americans held the president to a higher standard than they do now. In other words Americans nowadays have developed such a high tolerance of corruption and that's pretty damn sad if you ask me...

That's pretty much WHY Trump stands a chance of surviving impeachment and being reelected.

I can not envision this happening but what do you think will happen if the House of Representatives fails to impeach?

I think it would calamitous for the Democrats and significantly enhance Trump’s chances of reelection because the party would look completely incompetent. While that would not be the fault of the Democrat nominee it would reflect on that person. Their base would be rightfully be extremely pissed and stay home or go third party. I guess it could help the “outsider” Sanders obtain the nomination but in that case the it would seem the party bigwigs had decided their base is not woke.

Last edited by ASPartOfMe on 22 Nov 2019, 11:48 am, edited 1 time in total.

ASPartOfMe’s who was a teen during Watergate theory:
That really started a lot during the Vietnam/Watergate era. Nixon was the law and order President who was forced to resign because he broke the law. The remainder of the 70s was not a comfortable time to be a conservative. Your law and guy had been forced to resign in disgrace and the war you supported ended in humiliating defeat. The hippies, “traitors” , liberals had won big time over you and got to run things policy and cultural wise. In addition there was all this other executive malfeasance and conspiracies revealed about Kennedy and assassination conspiracy theories flourished.

The Reagan era put things at bay but the election of Clinton a former anti war hippie was conservatives ultimate nightmare and caused a reaction not unlike the resistance of today. All sorts of conspiracy theories about him were believed and like the resistance they tried to obstruct him at every turn. And he beat them back every time getting reelected and acquitted and laid. Instead of depressing them each defeat further infuriated them and made them more open to believe nefarious conspiracies were responsible. Add the Great Recession and ensuing bailouts, SJW’s cancelling things they believe in and Clintons wife as nominee, and you have your Tea Party then Trump phenomenon.

Trying to sabotage trump's reelection is quite obviously what it is all about. Just wait. Something else constructed out of vapor will come up after this. There should be a pool somewhere called, what will the democrats make up next to hold more hearings on? Seems like anything except putting up a really good candidate.