Impeachment inflation: The impeachment (inquiry) of Joe Biden is the death of impeachment

 The House of Representatives has voted to impeach, I mean, on an "impeachment inquiry" of Joe Biden, for, um... they'll figure it out.  Or not.  This will be a "repeal-and-replace" situation.  The Republican Party promised a replacement for Obamacare, year after year, and when they finally got unified control, they had to put up or shut up, but as it turned out, they found a third option.  "Fuck up."  They reduced the bill to "skinny repeal," which was a repeal of the individual mandate with no replacement, because they could not figure out a replacement.  Then, John "Keating 5" McCain sank the bill, along with Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski, but then the GOP added the individual mandate repeal back into their 2017-8 tax bill, for which all three voted anyway, and everyone forgot about that except me because they needed to pretend that John McCain was Mr. Honor.  Regardless, there was never a "replace," and there never would be.  Similarly, there have never been any charges against Joe, and there never will be, because this is all a joke.  But, Joe will be impeached for, um, something.

What will happen?  Comer will find nothing, the Senate will breeze through the silliest Senate trial yet, acquit Biden on party lines in about three seconds, and if McConnell is smart, he'll push for it to happen even faster than that.  And McConnell is smart.

What will be the consequence?  When the GOP impeached Clinton for a stain that a poor intern couldn't afford to get dry-cleaned, Clinton's pole went up faster than it did when faced with an enthusiastic intern.  Backwashfire.  Even with Trump, Pelosi tried to tamp down impeachment enthusiasm among Democrats for as long as she could because she remembered what happened in the '90s, which pissed off a lot of Democrats in response to what the Mueller Report actually said as opposed to the commonly spread misconceptions.  It was simply that the Zelenskyy phone call was a bridge too far.  Yet even then, there was a small rally effect for Trump, and the January 6 impeachment did nothing.

What is happening now?  The purpose, and likely effect will be what I am now calling "impeachment inflation."  When a currency inflates, it devalues.  You can buy less with a unit of that currency because it devalues, so the price of any good, measured in that currency, goes up.  We are observing, and the GOP is intentionally causing impeachment inflation.  Since Donald Trump was impeached twice, they want impeachment to mean nothing.  How can they do that?  By impeaching Joe Biden for nothing.

In the past, an impeachment has actually helped the president, so at first blush, the GOP may be concerned about helping Biden, but if impeachment simply becomes part of the background noise of politics, something that voters expect under divided government, then it ceases to signify anything.  It devalues the act, and in so doing, reduces the likelihood of the backlash which would benefit Biden.  Hence, I am skeptical of any Biden benefit, or any Biden cost.  The point is to make impeachment just meaningless, because Trump wants it meaningless.

This is actually rather interesting, if I am right.  We move from a disincentive to impeach, out of a risk of backlash, to default impeachment just 'cuz.

In a sense, I don't mind.  Impeachment is not a real constitutional option.  One of the lessons of modern politics is that polarization will prevent a party from allowing its own president from being removed from office.  When the framers put impeachment into the Constitution, they did not foresee parties at all, much less extreme polarization which would allow corruption at a Trumpian level to persist unopposed in any practical way.  That turns impeachment into mere theater.

At least the Biden impeachment shows impeachment to be absurdist theater at its most pathetic.  If that's all that impeachment is, let it be known.  Inflate impeachment out of any real value through absurdist theater.  Is this utterly stupid?  Yes.  This is inanity at its most ludicrous.

And the more clear that becomes, the better.  During the latter half of Trump's first term, House Democrats were raging for an impeachment, which would do nothing but empower him.  Had impeachment already been inflated, they either could have passed articles or not, gotten it out of their system with no consequence and no risk, and it would have been just another day at the office.

Donald Trump is a breath away from retaking the White House.  The Biden impeachment will do nothing either way, and with a razor-thin House, Democrats will tear themselves apart over another impeachment.  Once inflated, it will be clear that there is no point.

If you want to deal with him then, impeachment won't be the way.

The Claudettes, "Utterly Absurd," live.  The studio version is on Dance Scandal at the Gymnasium!