Impeachment Could End Badly

I don’t have the courage of my convictions. President Donald Trump deserves to be impeached for trying to pressure Ukraine to investigate his political opponents. With every week, he says or does something worse than what he already said or did. But to say Trump deserves impeachment is different from saying that impeachment is good for the country. It might, in fact, turn out quite badly.

Most of the people whom I like or trust believe—and believe rather strongly—that what Trump has done rises to a crime. For them, the analysis of whether Trump should be impeached can’t help but be informed by their view that Trump represents an existential threat to the country. If he might damage American democracy at some fundamental level, without any obvious recourse, then pursuing his removal from office would seem to go without saying. That he is in a position to win