Those against impeachment - So quick to forget the 2016 election already.

[cbdo2007]

Remember, "they go low, we go high"? Clinton was supposed to be a shoe in, literally ALL the polls showed her winning almost the entire election. She proved she would be a better leader and had better policies the entire time and she lost.

Trump lied. Trump cheated. Trump had help from the Russians.

What makes any of you think any of that will change for 2020??? What magical mystical world do you live in where somehow we can pull this out when nothing has changed?? Trump will lie, Trump will cheat, and the Russians will help Trump win again.

Why take that chance??? Why not give us the best odds possible by having our candidate debating someone who was impeached, if only by the house??

There is no good reason NOT to impeach in the house. There is no negative that will come from it, only positives and if we aren't willing to go through with it, we probably deserve all this terrible stuff that is happening.

[manor321]

1. Amen! Exactly right!

[bearsfootball516]

2. There are a lot of things that have changed.

Don't get me wrong, you're right when you say Trump will lie, cheat, and Russia will try to help him again. But there are definitely different things this time around.

Hillary isn't running. She was by far the most capable and experienced candidate that we've probably ever seen, but one major problem she had was the right-wing smear machine had been attacking her for decades. Independents and moderates didn't trust her and she was historically unpopular, through no fault of her own. That's not likely to be the case this time because none of our candidates have been attacked for decades like she was.

Trump has a record this time. Before, it was easier for him to get the attention of swing voters because he could talk empty rhetoric and didn't have a poor record to back it up. Now, he's got children in cages, the miserably unpopular tax cuts for the rich, trying to destroy the healthcare millions of Americans rely on, and 4 years of complete chaos and unfathomably bad leadership.

A candidate that promises to restore calm, serenity and respect to the United States abroad, will likely do well against him.

[redstateblues]

3. When McConnell refuses to bring it to the floor in the Senate

Trump will once again claim exoneration and use it to solidify his base. We must humiliate Trump and beat him in 2020. A failed effort to convict Trump in the Senate would be of no use.

[standingtall]

4. If McConnell refuses to bring it to the floor than senate republicans

cannot exonerate Trump through a vote and the houses impeachment will be the last formally standing verdict before the election.
McConnell may still refuse to bring it to a vote, but his main reason for doing that would be to protect vulnerable senate republicans like Susan Collins and Cory Gardner from having to make a tough vote on this.

Trump will claim he is exonerated no matter what. We need to stop being afraid of the republican base and we need to stop taking our own base for granted. Impeaching Trump could fire up our base and the house failing to impeach Trump could demoralize our base. If we are going to blame senate republicans for not impeaching Trump than we can just as easily impeach him and blame republicans for failing to convict him.

[cbdo2007]

7. Impeached is impeached. If the House impeaches, it doesn't matter what the Senate does...

we still get to run ads and have debates against someone who has been impeached.

Of the two - Impeachment by the House or Conviction by the Senate - the most important in framing narrative as a defense strategy is Impeachment by the House. Conviction is meaningless anyways if he will just be pardoned.

Impeachment with no conviction is better for that reason too, he will still be open to being indicted outside of office for his crimes with no best buddy there to get him out.

[TwilightZone]

5. Others have forgotten 2018.

We won in 2018 largely because we ran issues-based campaigns, not because it was all Trump, all the time, which is what the next 18 months is looking to be.

[TwilightZone]

6. "There is no negative that will come from it"

You have no way of knowing that. No one does at this point.

A backlash and/or a significant motivation of the right resulting in massive R turnout is certainly within the realm of possibility.

"literally ALL the polls showed her winning almost the entire election"

False. 538 had Trump with a 30% chance of winning and had been trending upward just before the election. 30% is not zero.