The impeachment inquiry is not a spectator sport

A house of cards cannot withstand a shitstorm.

So remarks an insightful friend.

It's important that those of us in the cheap seats outside the Beltway understand that we didn't get to this place through the goodness of the hearts of Democrats in Congress. This may not be so obvious to people who live in deep blue locales where our Congresscritters have long called for impeachment. It has not been obvious to those of us who are Nancy Pelosi's constituents because, in national matters, while occupying the high Constitutional office of House Speaker, she ignores us. But in areas where many Democratic Congresscritters have been avoiding calls for impeachment, especially new ones -- the "front liners" who so many activists worked so hard to elect in 2018 -- they've been hearing from dissatisfied supporters.

... August had been a challenge for the party’s rank-and-file, as activists and angry citizens back home browbeat them at town halls, grocery stores, and local events for the party’s unwillingness to impeach President Donald Trump. “We spent all summer getting the shit kicked out of us back home,” said one Democrat who received such treatment.

... grassroots anger was translating into primary challenges, [Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md] noted, and needlessly furious constituents. Rep. Cheri Bustos, the chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, and a champion of doing nothing when it came to Trump, had recently counted as many as 111 primaries, far more than a typical cycle.

... The [Ukraine phone call] news had landed like a bomb in a Democratic caucus that was already ready to explode. Calls to impeach Trump rained down from the party’s left flank and its presidential candidates. On Friday evening, Democrats were bracing for a backlash back home. “It’s going to be a brutal weekend for a lot of people, especially those who haven’t spoken for impeachment,” one Democrat predicted. Indeed it was. Democrats, including front-liners, spent the weekend furiously texting and calling each other as they worked through how to respond to Trump’s latest lawlessness. “People are pissed,” said another Democrat over the weekend. “Front-liners are pissed! And not even the ‘progressive’ front-liners either.”

Ryan Grim, The Intercept

The pissed off people giving recalcitrant Democrats such a bad time are ORGANIZED. The Impeach Now coalition, including By The People, CREDO Action, Indivisible, March For Truth, MoveOn, Mainers for Accountable Leadership, Public Citizen, Stand Up America, Women’s March, and others, has planned a campaign to keep the pressure on for the next two weeks -- to keep impeachment moving.

Sign up here. Yes. You'll get more email. But millions of us have to do this stuff -- make calls, write letters, show up -- if we want to have a chance to live to fight another day for more justice and better governance. And supposing Dems get this through the House, we'll have to beat up on Senators ...

For the folks who worked so hard to turn Reno blue in 2018:

Republican Congressman Mark Amodei from Nevada District 2, which is anchored by Washoe County, was the first GOP member of Congress to support a full inquiry, if not yet impeachment. According to the Nevada Independent:

“Let’s put it through the process and see what happens,” Amodei, the only Republican in the state’s congressional delegation, said on a call Friday with reporters, adding that he believes Congress is justified to look into the matter.

... “Using government agencies to, if it’s proven, to put your finger on the scale of an election, I don’t think that’s right,” he continued. “If it turns out that it’s something along those lines, then there’s a problem.”

Mr. Amodei may be seeing the writing on the wall. Reno is both growing and changing demographically. This is hard on long time residents, but could be good for Democrats. Amodei was elected in 2011 to a bright red seat. But Democrats have been winning in the town in Presidential years; meanwhile Amodei's margins have been dropping. He won by 21 percentage points in 2016 (while Trump carried his Congressional district by 52-39). In 2018 he won by 16 percentage points while Democrat Jacky Rosen running for Senate was carrying Reno by 6840 votes.

If the 2020 election is a referendum on Trump, which it will be if the abuser-of-power-in-chief is still running, Mr. Amodei might even be in some trouble himself.

The times they are a-changing. Let's keep on pushing.