O Pioneers!

Nancy Pelosi tried to make it a somber occasion by wearing black and urging her Democratic colleagues to not gloat over the impeachment vote, but there was no hiding the glee many felt in seeing His Trumpness reduced to the lowest point in his presidency.  He became only the third president in history to be formally impeached by the House of Representatives.

The historic House vote put a damper on the Christmas theme Trump set for his Michigan rally, and he let Democrats know about, living and dead. Trump's wild rallies have become legend.  In this one a protester had to be escorted away, but not without Trump publicly shaming her on the way out.  He thought security was being too politically correct.  For whatever reason he chose to assail John Dingell, who died this past year after serving six decades in Congress.  Of course, he saved his harshest criticism for Ms. Pelosi, urging Americans to voter her "the hell out of office."

It all played out as expected.  Ms. Pelosi has decided to let the impeachment articles sit a little awhile before passing them along to the Senate, where Mitch McConnell has vowed a swift trial, with Republicans working fully in consort with the President.  The "Turdle" could have been a little less obvious than his Republican colleagues in the House, but I guess didn't want to create any confusion among the conservative electorate, which is out for blood in next year's election cycle.

No Republican representative opted to buck the party line, and only one Democrat crossed over to join them, the previously unknown Jeff Van Drew, who was personally congratulated by Trump. Two other Democrats voted against one or both articles of impeachment, but they chose to remain in their party.  Tulsi Gabbard chose to vote present.  Not much in the way of defections, but the conservative blogosphere is hailing Van Drew as a hero.

The extent of Trump's wrongdoing couldn't have been more clear.  Democrats wisely chose to keep the articles of impeachment focused on his attempted extortion of Ukrainian President Zelensky.  They could have provided a long list of articles, as Trump has been openly defying the Constitution since day one.

Republicans insist in standing with him despite losing the House in 2018 and losing key gubernatorial races in Louisiana and Kentucky this Fall.  Many Republican representatives have opted to retire ahead of the 2020 elections.  Some appear to be angling for administrative positions, like Mark Meadows, but others want to avoid the ignominy of electoral defeat.  Trump's message doesn't carry very far beyond his political base.

However, Republicans still have one key man in their corner - Vladimir Putin - who weighed in on the impeachment vote and his annual holiday press conference, calling the articles "completely made up."  Throughout the inquiry and hearings, Republican representatives were pitching Kremlin conspiracy theories, as if the only online papers they read are Russian propaganda outlets RT and Sputnik.  The GOP has essentially become a bunch of "useful idiots" for the Kremlin, (un)knowingly pitching Russia's positions vis-a-vis Ukraine, which is ironic since this is how this whole thing started.

Earlier this year, the US Congress voted overwhelmingly to continue to supply military aid to Ukraine in its ongoing war with Russian "green men" in Donbass.  This is part of a Support Act that dates back to 2014 when Russian insurgents first crossed the border and eventually took over Crimea.  Republicans were once bold in their assertions against Putin's open acts of hostility.  Senate Leader Mitch McConnell even promised an investigation into the matter.

However, since then they have become decidedly less concerned, and are now trying to pitch Ukraine as the "bad guy" in all this, to the point the Eastern European country meddled in the 2016 election to swing the vote toward Hillary Clinton.  This is a conspiracy theory that has been debunked by every reputable intelligence agency and newspaper, but Republicans promoted this theory throughout the impeachment proceedings, even when it was pointed out to them repeatedly that this was Russian fake news.

For Republicans, maintaining support among their conservative base is much more important than the truth.  For the past two decades these religious conservatives have been weaned on Fox news and other conservative news outlets.  They have lost all touch with reality and accept the positions provided to them by conservative pundits like Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham.  They like to believe they still have an independent mind, but when confronted with any news to the contrary, immediately dismiss it.

The problem for Republicans is that this base is becoming smaller over time.  What seemed like a "silent majority" at one point, now seems like a radical fringe element in politics.  When you can't carry deeply conservative states like Louisiana and Kentucky in gubernatorial elections, something is amiss.  The RNC blames it on bad candidates, yet Kentucky governor Matt Bevin was an incumbent.  He had promoted the conservative line throughout his administration and became the most reviled governor in America.  So much for the silent majority.

At the helm of the GOP is the most reviled President in American History.  No president has been more openly hated than Trump.  Throughout his administration, his weekly approval numbers have never crossed 50 per cent.  This despite an ever-growing economy and a Dow Jones index finally threatening to breach 30,000.  Normally, such a healthy economy would buoy a president, but not Trump.  People despise him.

His crazy antics appeal to religious conservative voters that long felt themselves disenfranchised from the political process, but they don't appeal to Americans in general.  Gaining his support has been the kiss of death for conservative candidates.  Trump personally rallied for both Bevin in Kentucky and Eddie Rispone in Louisiana.  His Bossier City rally came the night before the Louisiana election, calling it a referendum on his presidency.

Now, we have an even bigger referendum on his presidency that the Senate has to consider in the New Year.  One almost wonders if Mitch might want to do away with Trump all together given the "yuge" liability he has become, but most likely the "Turdle" will stick with the conservative base and push through a sham trial with the vote falling along party lines once again.  There might be a handful of Republican defections, but only among those not running for reelection in 2020.  Most likely, disgruntled conservative senators like Mitt Romney will just vote "present," as Tulsi Gabbard did.