Democrats impeaching Trump fuel hatred, division and violence

The Democrats' insistence in pursuing a second trial of former President Donald Trump in the Senate within thirteen months – despite the certainty he will again be acquitted – will only serve to further fuel the hatred, division and violence that has almost brought America to its knees over the last four years.

The first unsuccessful impeachment of Trump was a major contributing factor in the Democrats seeing their 235-199 control of the House of Representatives - gained in November 2018 - reduced to 220-212 in November 2020.

The Democrats in 2018 had secured a margin of 8.6% over the Republicans in the House elections - 60,727,598 to 50,983,395.

Democrats in 2020 increased their total House vote by an estimated 16.8 million over 2018 but Republicans did better - gaining an estimated 21.9 million more votes. The Democrats' margin in the House elections had dramatically fallen by more than half - from 8.6% to an estimated 3%.

The Democrats abused their newly gained voting power in 2018 to impeach President Trump in proceedings commenced in the House in 2019 by Democrats Jerrold Nadler and Adam Schiff - when it was abundantly clear from the beginning that there was no possible chance of Trump being found guilty by the Senate in a trial which required a two-thirds majority of Senators to convict and remove a sitting President.

Both House Speaker Pelosi and Nadler had previously opposed the Congress conducting highly partisan impeachment proceedings.

Pelosi warned in March 2019:

Impeachment is so divisive to the country that unless there's something so compelling and overwhelming and bipartisan, I don't think we should go down that path, because it divides the country...

Nadler expressed the identical position on December 10, 1998:

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.

Voters obviously did not take kindly to the Democratic Party majority in the House abusing their numbers to trash these principles and impeach Trump in 2019 - when there was no overwhelming consensus of the American people and their representatives in Congress to do so.

Yet the House - with a greatly-reduced Democratic Party majority - and a huge drop in voter support for the House Democrats - is once again putting the country under increasing stress and tension by impeaching Trump in proceedings that have given him no opportunity to: