Pelosi can commit political suicide or help heal partisan rift

The effect of impeachment is to overturn the popular will of the voters as expressed in a national election. We must not overturn an election and remove a president from office except to defend our very system of government or our constitutional liberties against a dire threat. And we must not do so without an overwhelming consensus of the American people and of their representatives in congress of the absolute necessity.

There must never be a narrowly voted impeachment or an impeachment substantially supported by one of our major political parties and largely opposed by the other. Such an impeachment would lack legitimacy, would produce divisiveness and bitterness in our politics for years to come. And will call into question the very legitimacy of our political institutions.

The House heard the evidence and voted on party lines with the exception of three Democrats who did not support impeaching the President - one of whom has left the Democrats and joined the Republican Party.

One Democrat, Tulsi Gabbard,  who voted present, sounded this warning:

I also could not in good conscience vote for impeachment because removal of a sitting president must not be the culmination of a partisan process, fueled by tribal animosities that have so gravely divided our country...

The House vote to impeach Trump has clearly failed to meet Pelosi and Nadler's test of bipartisanship.

The choices facing the Democrats now are:

• Abandoning bipartisanship by putting Trump on trial - ensuring probable electoral defeat in 2020 on a scale just seen in the British elections; or
• Promoting bipartisanship to achieve outcomes that will benefit all Americans.

This is the moment of truth and reckoning for the Democrats' leadership.