Here is the big, year-end question for Democrats:
Is the anger at President Trump that
carried them to big wins in the 2017 off-year elections strong enough to
make them even bigger winners in the 2018 midterms?
The party’s leaders don’t buy it.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., spent last week throwing cold water on excited calls from fellow Democrats to impeach the president.
And Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer,
D-N.Y., echoed that line, telling a reporter that talk of impeachment
is “premature… you might blow your shot when it has a better chance of
happening.”
That makes sense.
But the grassroots energy inside the party — from
moderates to left-wingers — is all about taking the fight to Trump to
the point of impeachment.
A late October poll by Public Policy Polling, a Democratic-leaning firm, found a “record level of support for impeaching Donald Trump,” with 49 percent calling for impeachment and 41 percent opposed.
That near-majority call reveals the deep split between
the Democrats’ youthful, activist base and the party’s cautious, old
guard, led by senior congressional leaders.
Both sides want to win in 2018. But
in the run-up to next year’s election, it is the party’s establishment
leaders who are losing the intraparty fight to restrain growing
excitement at the prospect of impeaching Trump.
Both sides want to win in 2018. But in the run-up to
next year’s election, it is the party’s establishment leaders who are
losing the intraparty fight to restrain growing excitement at the
prospect of impeaching Trump.
Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., recently ended a speech at Glamour’s Women of the Year Awards with a robust chant: “Impeach Him!”
Billionaire Tom Steyer, the party’s biggest donor in
recent years, is running a multi-million dollar ad blitz that has led
1.5 million people to sign a petition calling for the president’s
impeachment.
The advertisement says, “People in Congress and his own
administration know that this president is a clear and present danger
who is mentally unstable and armed with nuclear weapons.”
Pelosi, when pressed on the Steyer advertisement, said
impeachment “is not someplace I think we should go.” Similarly, Schumer
reacted to Steyer by saying, “I’m not against him doing it but I think
it is premature.”
Tom Perez,
the chairman of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), has joined the
congressional leadership in withholding support for impeachment. He
told ABC’s Martha Raddatz flatly, “I am not talking about impeachment.”
Rep. Keith Ellison,
D-Minn., the DNC’s deputy chairman, told the Atlantic that the
Republicans present a major hurdle to successful impeachment, given
their majorities in both the House and the Senate.
“I think that he totally deserves to be impeached, but
given the present composition of Congress, it’s not about to happen
soon,” Ellison said, “so why not focus on things that are right in front
of us.”
These establishment strategists also point out that the
last time Democrats aimed their fire at Trump’s often erratic behavior,
they were not successful.
Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton made the case that Trump’s words and actions should disqualify him as a presidential candidate. Obviously, it did not work.
Now political insiders argue it will be more fruitful
for the Democrats to wait on the findings of Special Counsel Robert
Mueller’s investigation into ties between the Trump camp and Russia
before jumping on the impeachment bandwagon.
Without clear evidence of high crimes and misdemeanors,
the start of impeachment hearings could create a backlash, as some
voters rally to his side.
Another point to consider is fundraising.
At the moment, Federal Election Commission filings show
the Republican National Committee having raised $93 million through
August, with $47 million in cash available.
Democrats are nowhere near that sum. For all the big
wins for Democrats this year and the talk of grassroots energy growing
on the Democratic side, the party has raised far less than the GOP — $46
million through August with $6.8 million in cash on hand.
Top Democrats favor focusing on positive messaging — more jobs and better health care — aimed at increasing donor confidence.
But pragmatic strategies from the Democrats’
congressional leadership have not stopped calls for impeachment from
growing inside the party.
In a revealing split with party leaders, six House Democrats announced proposed articles of impeachment against President Trump.
“We have taken this action because of great concern for
our country and our Constitution, our national security and our
democracy,” Tennessee Democrat Steve Cohen said last week.
Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif., introduced articles of
impeachment against Trump in July. He has told The New York Times his
action was “speaking for and galvanizing those people who are appalled
at the [president’s] recklessness and the incompetency.”
Two leading grassroots groups, Democracy for America
and MoveOn.org, are pushing for immediate impeachment. They can push all
they like. At the moment, the Republican majority in Congress is sure
to block them.
The Democrats are heady with momentum on their side as
the 2018 midterms begin. But political momentum can fade. That is a big
danger heading into midterms where the Democrats often fail to turn out.
That’s why Pelosi, Schumer and Perez are wrong not to
at least wink at the activists calling for impeachment. It comes at no
cost and it energizes the base.
Juan Williams currently serves as a co-host of FOX News Channel’s
(FNC) The Five (weekdays 5-6PM/ET) and also appears as a political
analyst on FOX News Sunday with Chris Wallace and Special Report with
Bret Baier. Williams joined the network as a contributor in 1997.