Imagine a socialist magazine leading an article with advice from the likes of Mitch McConnell, Republican majority leader of the US Senate. That was Brother Doug’s point of departure, the burden of which was, “Don’t bother impeaching. This Senate will never vote to remove.”

One may be excused for suspecting that McConnell would just as soon the House Democrats stand down because he believes impeachment would not be good for his party, even though Doug is doubtless correct that the Republican majority in this Senate will never abandon the president.

This is a tip-off that the impact of impeachment is not in the end result — the removal of Trump from office — but the politics leading up to that point: who said what, and who voted how. Doug reduces the proceedings to therapy for MSNBC hosts and revenge for the national security state. He seriously underestimates the political import of the process.