Impeachment Is Not the Issue, It's the 2020 Election
By Bill Livingstone
AmericanThinker.com
If you listen to Republicans, the impeachment of President Trump is a “bizarre strategy,” a partisan political blunder by the Democrats, doomed to fail in the Senate, and already backfiring. As evidence, the “hit job” has energized the Republican base, boosted GOP fundraising and, come November, will cause House Democrats in Trump districts to lose re-election.
To think House Democrats actually believe Trump committed impeachable offenses grossly underestimates their political acumen. The Democrats regularly run circles around the Republicans. While the latter jumps pieces on a checkerboard, the Democrats are thinking three steps ahead, looking to checkmate the king.
The Republicans mistakenly believe the issue is always about the stated issue. They ignore political strategist Saul Alinsky, author of Rules for Radicals, who stated, “The issue is never the issue.” For Democrats, impeaching the president has never been the issue. The issue is the 2020 election.
Here’s the political map facing the Democrats. The economy is roaring, unemployment is at an all-time low for black Americans, Hispanic Americans, and women – key Democrat voting groups. Trump is hugely popular with his base, attracting enormous crowds at rallies. He’s moving his agenda forward, getting trade deals done, expanding the economy, building the wall, destroying terrorists.
What do the Democrats offer voters in response? High taxes, open borders, gun confiscation, abolishing ICE, uprooting the electoral college, restricting free speech, a Green New Deal, free health care for illegal aliens, scrubbing bail for crimes, and more – all loony left issues that scare the bejesus out of middle America. Making matters worse, the leading Democrat presidential candidates are a bust, uninspiring talking heads who can barely muster a respectable crowd in far-left districts.
So how do Democrats hope to win in November? By making Trump the issue. By demonizing the president to such an extent that voters will turn against him despite his successes.
The impeachment of President Trump is the key component of the Democrat game plan. It gives them a powerful talking point to feature in attack ads pillorying the president.
The strategy is already playing out in campaign ads. Democrats are wrapping themselves in the American flag, while thrashing the president for “putting politics ahead of our country.” They’re urging voters to “hold the president accountable for abusing his office and risking national security for his own gain.” In short, kick him out of office to safeguard the nation.
Trump’s campaign is on the defensive. Instead of attacking the Democrat’s agenda, he’s doling out millions on ads, arguing the impeachment “is a coup intended to take away the Power of the People.”
For Democrats, the impeachment process provides another important benefit. Message control. In PR parlance, you’re either creating dust, meaning you’re on the offensive, setting the news agenda, getting your narrative communicated, or you’re eating dust, on the defensive, responding to the other’s agenda.
Every day that impeachment leads the news cycle, Republicans eat dust. Rather than tout their accomplishments and throw spit balls at the loony left, they’re forced off message, discussing legal and process issues.
The impeachment playbook is a continuation of the Russian collusion hoax. The Democrats engineered the ruse. They’ve always known there was no collusion. But collusion was never the issue. The real issue was to wound the president and impair his ability to lead, to force him off balance, and make him eat their dust.
Keeping the news cycle focused on impeachment also acts as a shield, protecting Democrats from negative news stories. The same day Inspector General Michael Horowitz released his report on the FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane investigation, the House Judiciary Committee held its second public impeachment hearing.
The hearing was broadcast live through much of the day, overshadowing the report, which contains highly damaging information on illegal spying of the Trump campaign by Obama administration officials. Absent the impeachment hearing, the media would have focused on the report, landing a much bigger punch on the Democrats.
That the impeachment hearing and the public distribution of the report were scheduled on the same day should not be viewed as a coincidence. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) announced the date of the report’s release in late November, a political error.
Democrats have been successful with their playbook, in no small part, because the mainstream media is on their team. They eagerly echo Democrat talking points, while downplaying, counter-spinning, and spiking Republican news stories. They dig out facts and present events truthfully only when they impugn the Republicans.
In years past, when the fourth estate had integrity, journalists doggedly investigated left- and right-leaning issues. They would have quickly peeled back the layers of corruption in the Russian hoax and exposed the perpetrators. In the impeachment hearings, the Democrats would have been assailed for manipulating the proceedings, gathering testimony in closed-door meetings, failing to allow Republicans to call or cross-examine witnesses, and keeping exculpatory testimony confidential.
Because of MSM bias, Democrats have a free hand to politically push the envelope, i.e. impeach Trump based on bogus wrongdoings, without fear of suffering a message backlash.
Given the many political benefits the impeachment process accrues for the Democrats, it should come as no surprise that they want to keep the issue alive for as long as possible. The most recent ploy is to withhold the articles of impeachment until Republicans agree to call new witnesses in the Senate trial.
Expect the Democrats to throw some additional curve balls in the days ahead. Impeachment is the long pole in their campaign against Trump and you can bet they are plotting ways in hopes of keeping the issue going until November. Republicans need to put an end to the mess and get on message. Until then they’ll continue to eat dust.