Opinion | An Imperial Presidency?

Democrats are operating from the Richard Nixon impeachment playbook, only this isn’t the 1970s, before cable news, the internet and social media. They think it’s somehow possible to overwhelm the public with evidence, to turn Trump’s devout base against him, to pressure the president himself into submission.

Wrong on all counts. None of that is going to happen. This is a new day. Democrats are trying to flex their muscle, to slowly build a case, but the cast is already being set.

They have opened a raft of investigations and even issued subpoenas, but Trump and his allies are executing a strategy of wholesale obstruction, refusing to comply in any way on any front. This is a severe challenge to Congress’s constitutional role of oversight.

As Kerry W. Kircher, former House general counsel for the last Republican majority, told The Washington Post, the confrontation is “a complete breakdown and complete obstruction of Congress’s role.”

He continued: “If the court signs off on this stuff, then we’ll have an imperial presidency,” and added, “We’ll have a presidency that will be largely unchecked.”

And yet, the overly cautious speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, said last week:

“Trump is goading us to impeach him. That’s what he’s doing. Every single day, he’s just like taunting, taunting, taunting, because he knows that it would be very divisive in the country, but he doesn’t really care. He just wants to solidify his base.”

But Democrats aren’t being taunted, they’re already at war. The country is already divided. Trump’s base is already solidified. Democrats are bringing their letter openers to a gunfight.