It feels like an eternity ago, but at this time last year, I was composing parodies of Christmas carols about impeachment. Doesn’t that seem hopelessly quaint now?
There was never any possibility that Trump would be removed from office regardless of the magnitude of his crimes. The Democrats’ objectives consequently were: (1) to make the necessary stand for constitutional government; (2) to dig up and publicize as much information as possible about Trump’s dirty dealings with Ukraine; (3) to get some level of GOP support for removal; and (4) to avoid a backlash. On balance, they accomplished all of these objectives.
In a normal year, impeachment would have been a hot topic during the campaign. In 2020, it barely made a ripple. The year was dominated by the pandemic and the corresponding recession. More on those in future posts.