A Symbolic Gesture

I love to walk my dogs, and they love their walks. Being males, they spend more time stopping, sniffing and marking territory than they do walking, but it's more about their experience than my exercise.

Their usual routine is to run helter-skelter to the island in our cul-de-sac, or to the first corner across from it, and mark the first spot. This is probably TMI, but that first stream is generally a pretty healthy one.

They continue down the street, marking pretty much every tree along the way (we have at least one street tree in every front yard in our neighborhood). After less than a block, there's nothing left in the tank. Yet they continue to stop, sniff, and lift their leg.

It's a symbolic gesture.

The House Democrats' vote to impeach Donald Trump on December 18 was the same: a symbolic gesture.

You see, the Dems have been pissing on Trump since he beat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 Presidential election (read that again, snowflakes: he beat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 Presidential election - not the Russians, not James Comey, not gender, just one candidate that the electoral majority favored over the other, for reasons that should by now be evident).

They emptied their tank with the Mueller Report, yet they had to lift their collective leg one more time. So they did.

And nothing came out. It was purely a symbolic gesture, like a dog trying to mark a tree with nothing to show for it.

What did we gain from the full House hearing, in which each member got a minute or two to state his or her position for or against impeachment?

Did someone toss out a revelation that made another Representative - or voter, for that matter - suddenly say, "Hey, I never thought of that before! By golly, I'm now for (or against) impeachment!"

No. It was just the same old recycled talking points, with the Dems throwing in a lot of crap they don't like about Trump, but aren't in the articles of impeachment they drafted (and yet constitute the real reasons they want him impeached): civility, decency, things he said on the campaign trail, "ripping babies from their mothers' arms," ad blauseum.

In fact, to that last point, Al Green (not the singer; the one without talent who takes up space in the House), who infamously set the stage by saying we have to impeach Trump so he doesn't get reelected, brought up the now-debunked photo of a little girl crying because she was purportedly separated from her parents at the border.

Hey, Al: 1) You weren't impeaching Trump over his border policy - in fact, you can't, any more than the GOP could have impeached Obama for any of his policies. 2) It's been proven that the picture you used had nothing to do with the propagandized message it was used for in the media. 3) If you truly believe that we the people cannot be trusted to decide who our President is, then you can't be trusted with public office, and should be sent back to wherever you came from, if they'll have you.

In short, the entire day was a waste of time, unless you count the one- to two-minute soundbites each Representative got as a free campaign ad for the constituents back home.

In the gospel according to Mark, we read, "For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?"

Let's paraphrase, to put those words in context: "For what does it profit a political party to gain a symbolic victory, but forfeit its ultimate objective (and indeed, its soul)?"

In other words, what did the Democrats gain from this symbolic gesture that is akin to a dog lifting its leg without result?

Obviously, I can't ask my dogs what they get from this gesture. Are they hoping another dog will see them, and realize the territory being symbolically marked is now theirs? Is it reflex, as ingrained as turning around and around before they lie down? I don't know.

For the Dems, however, we can find some evidence of what they gained, in the polls. Now let me just say that I don't place much stock in political polls - haven't since 2016, at least. By the same token, I don't place much stock in economic surveys, like Consumer Confidence or the various manufacturing surveys. I prefer hard data, like retail sales, or industrial production, or construction spending.

Or electoral votes.

On the other hand, both economic surveys and political polls can be useful in identifying trends, shifting tides, if you will.

At the time a giddy Nancy Pelosi first announced the impeachment proceedings, 90% of Democrats polled favored impeachment and removal of President Trump. The most recent poll showed that number had shrunk to just 77%. Now, 77% is still a lot, but these are Democrats, after all, who are still in denial over the results of the 2016 election, don't need a valid reason to want Trump impeached, and most of whom don't understand the process to begin with. So while 77% is significant, it isn't surprising. What is surprising, and is even more significant, is the large shift between then and now.

I've been accused of saying there are no reasonable Democrats. These results prove that there are at least a handful. The shift probably represents those Democrats polled that actually do understand the purpose and process of impeachment.

Also at the time of Pelosi's announcement, head-to-head polls between Trump and various Dem primary candidates showed several of them beating Trump in 2020: Biden, Warren, Sanders, and in at least one early poll, Mayor Pete. (I can't spell his last name. Don't ask me to try.)

Granted, these are national polls, which mean nothing given the Electoral College (right, Hillary?) And, they're still a year out from the election. Still, and again, shifts in polling can indicate shifts in sentiment.

And guess what? The latest U.S. News poll (hardly a Trump-friendly media outlet) showed Trump beating all Democrat comers head-to-head, some quite handily.

Dollars represent another strong indicator. And the GOP raised a record $20.6 million in November.

Who'da thunk the Democrats could turn Donald Trump into a sympathetic figure?

Yes, what Pelosi and Co. have gained through their symbolic gesture is what appears to be almost certain defeat in 2020. They have achieved the goal held since 2016 of leaving a permanent asterisk on Pres. Trump's legacy, but likely at the cost of losing their House majority and the White House in 2020. And given the nature of this proceeding, that permanent asterisk might look more like a badge of honor than a scarlet letter.

So now what? After harping on the urgency of impeaching Trump, to avoid him doing "further irreparable harm to our Republic," suddenly Pelosi is putting on the brakes. She wants Senate Majority Leader McConnell to show his hand. Her Senate lapdog, Chuck "I love TV cameras" Schumer, is already complaining about not getting his witnesses approved, before the Senate process has even begun.

Sorry, Nancy and Chuck, this is in the Senate now. You no longer get to make up the rules to suit you. It's the GOP's turn.

Personally, I'm torn between two options. The first is a prolonged trial in the Senate, in which the GOP calls Adam Schiff, his pal the whistleblower, Joe and Hunter Biden, Loretta Lynch, Bill Clinton (to talk about his tarmac meeting with Lynch, during which they purportedly talked about soccer), Eric Holder, James Comey, Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, John Brennan ... you get the idea. Keep Bernie and Warren and Klobuchar and Spartacus (not that the latter two are still relevant in the race) off the campaign trail and in the Senate chambers. Give Mayor Pete an "edge-edge" to "boot."

However, that could lend credence to this whole charade (plus there are too many Republicans who would insist on playing by the rules; the reason the Dems can more easily unify in these pitched partisan battles is that they're more uniform in their unscrupulousness).

So my second option would be for McConnell to rightly call this what it is and has been, a verdict in search of a charge, a partisan charade, payback for impeaching Bill Clinton and for defeating his wife, and say, "Enough! We're not going to legitimize this nonsense with a trial; we're going straight to a vote. And then we're going to get back to doing what the people for whom we work sent us here to do."

As much as I'd like to see the trial, enough of my tax dollars have been wasted watching the Democrats dry-piss on a tree. Let's not mark the rest of the block. There's nothing in the tank, and there is real work to be done.