Democrats and Republicans are Addicted To Impeachment

Impeachment Becomes Campaign Weapon for Both Parties: Once upon a time, even the rumor of an impeachment would shake Washington.

Today, it’s starting to resemble a campaign tactic.

Most recently, Rep. Al Green’s (D-Texas) 14th resolution to impeach Donald Trump landed in the House last Friday.

Impeachment Is Now the Norm

This came the day after Rep. Shri Thanedar (D-Mich.) backed down from pushing a vote on his own version.

What was once a solemn constitutional remedy has become a fundraising hook, a messaging tool, and for some, a political crutch. Thanedar, facing a tough primary, appeared to be less concerned with Trump’s alleged lawbreaking and more with inflaming his progressive base.

He even hosted “impeachment town halls” in Michigan and erected billboards advertising his push. The effort, however, was so ill-received by fellow Democrats that it sparked boos inside a caucus meeting. There were even subsequent discussions about donating to his opponent.

It is certainly a far cry from the impeachment landscape of decades past.

Between the end of the Nixon era and the Obama administration, only a handful of impeachment resolutions were filed against sitting presidents. However, since Trump’s first Presidential win in 2016, a whopping 31 total presidential impeachment resolutions have been put forward. Seventeen have been against Biden, and 14 against Trump.

And it doesn’t stop there. Vice President Kamala Harris and multiple Biden cabinet members, notably former Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, have been targeted. Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito have also had impeachment resolutions introduced against them, both by progressive Democrat Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

The incentives are clear. An impeachment resolution is still rare enough to attract media coverage, but easy enough to file, with no requirement that it so much as pass a committee, let alone the full House. And in an age where cable news hits and viral posts can build a brand or fuel a campaign, that attention is political gold.

Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), no stranger to impeachment talk himself, says it bluntly: Thanedar’s move was “political,” but Mayorkas’ trial was “real.” Even Democrats like Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.), who led the first Trump impeachment inquiry as a lawyer, lament what impeachment has become: “It’s lost its ability to be a form of accountability.”

This weaponization isn’t limited to one side. Republicans have eagerly mirrored the Democrats’ earlier impeachment attempts. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) introduced six Biden impeachment resolutions, three of them in a single day. Trump himself declared on Truth Social, “They did it to us,” advocating Biden’s removal even before taking office.

Not a Tool of Last Resort

As norms continue to erode and primary season heats up, the trend is unlikely to reverse. Impeachment may remain in the Constitution, but its use as a mechanism of last resort appears to have left the chamber.

About the Author:

Georgia Gilholy is a journalist based in the United Kingdom who has been published in Newsweek, The Times of Israel, and the Spectator. Gilholy writes about international politics, culture, and education.