Two Republican stalwarts have introduced House resolutions to expunge the Trump impeachments. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s version deals with December 2019 (Impeachment 1), Elise Stefanik’s with January 2021 (Impeachment 2).
Although mere expressions of sentiment, not legislation, in our hyper-ventilating age obsessed with feelings and much as non-Republican critics mock them as yet more exercises in reality-denial, both resolutions have a concrete, supremely rational purpose: keep the party faithful stoked and donating money.
That non-Republicans disagree with the resolution’s sentiment is of zero import. Nothing the House does (expect both resolutions to pass on a party-line vote) will change the fact that Impeachments 1 and 2 happened. Second, yes, Greene and Stefanik — in full fan-girl glory — are doing this to curry favor with Trump.
But — Republicans understand this, Democrats don’t — sentiment is the core of the political enterprise. Facts and policies, while not irrelevant, are secondary to reaching the public’s nerve center. What is the Trump phenomenon other than the grievance-driven antics of a narcissist fueling the grievances of his admirers?
If your job, then, is to cater to the feelings of your constituents, it’s an obvious next step to do so without letting facts get in the way. What better way to do that than to intone, like Dorothy, He was not impeached; He was not impeached; He was not impeached. If your audience buys in, you’ve been effective.
Much as Democrats deny it, being effective counts more than being right. In 2020, after watching Trump for 4 years, 74 million did the primal scream thing: Don’t go! We still love you! That’s 11 million more than in 2016 when he was still a novelty given the benefit of the doubt.
Aside from the country’s business executives’ pocketing the benefits of Trump’s tax cut through share buy-backs, it was hard to see how he had made things better for the country. But he had that ability to get millions — most of whom definitely not alongside him in the top 2% — to identify with him.
They did so despite (because of?) the catalog of his lies about things great and small. For example, Evangelicals, self-styled guardians of the nation’s morals, resorted to forgiveness, the ultimate Christian virtue. But they did (and do) so only for Trump; no other politician, and certainly no Democrat, gets that blessing.
Forgiveness selective as this makes the denial of facts mandatory. It requires dizzying twists and turns of thought (such as it is) to stay ahead of the logical inconsistencies and not be overrun by principle, let alone the law. Pretending that things like Impeachments 1 and 2 never happened is crucial.
It remains to be seen if the House resolutions, even if passed, move the political needle one way or the other. It’s risky to exaggerate the importance of yet another public relations stunt by their unserious sponsors. We can only hope that, in two weeks, the matter will be ancient history, drowned in yet another bath of incoherence.
For Democrats, the suggestion isn’t to ape Stefanik and Greene in their if-I-believe-it-it’s-true infantilism. Instead, a concise, consistent, and punchy message that inspires (read, appeals to the sentiments of) Democrats to turn out would be not only useful, but refreshingly novel. Here’s to hoping.
