When President Richard Nixon resigned from office on Aug. 9, 1974, he did so after having lost nearly all of his political support and with the near-certainty that he would be impeached and removed from office over his role in the Watergate scandal.

President Bill Clinton was impeached for perjury and obstruction of justice during proceedings held in 1998 and 1999 stemming from the Monica Lewinsky scandal. While both charges passed in the House of Representatives, the Senate later acquitted Clinton. This made Clinton the only president to have been impeached since Andrew Johnson in 1868.

In the cases of Johnson, Nixon and Clinton, the charges were clear: The central charge against Johnson was his violation of the Tenure of Office Act. In Nixon’s case, it was obstruction of justice attendant to a cover-up of White House involvement in the Watergate break-in. With Clinton, it was perjury and obstruction of justice. All of these related to a singular, specific and easily categorized high crime or misdemeanor.

Regarding the intention of House Democrats to initiate impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump, there are simply no clear crimes to prosecute. The so-called crimes typically referenced by Democrat operatives in the endless evening news sound bites to which we’ve become accustomed are nebulous at best and laughable at worst. The actual crimes upon which Democrats claim they have legal standing to impeach (obstructing justice, violating the Emoluments Clause, conspiring to commit crimes against the United States and attempting to conceal, advocating violence and undermining Equal Protection under the law, etc.) reflect convenient and extremely subjective interpretations of the criteria for such crimes.

The fact that murmurings of impeachment amongst prominent Democrats began during the first 100 days of Trump’s presidency also lends credence to the notion that their impeachment crusade is nothing but a witch hunt.

Donald Trump was elected to the presidency because a sufficient percentage of the electorate was not only disgusted with the status quo in Washington, but because millions of Americans suffered real adversity due to the policies of Clinton and President George W. Bush. Their suffering was compounded during Barack Obama’s presidency, and millions more were added to the rolls of the suffering. During Barack Obama’s presidency, it also became clear to many Americans that we were operating within an increasingly self-serving political system that was incrementally neutralizing the Constitution and the rule of law, and that we were on track to becoming a socialist state in the tradition of Europe, which is falling apart at its seams after decades of socialistic policies.

When Trump was elected, Democrats collectively lost their minds. This was readily observable in their subsequent actions, but it isn’t just committed leftists or Democrats who felt mortally threatened by Trump’s presidency. It is unlikely that most ardent Trump supporters truly understood the depth and breadth of Deep State insinuation into our government and its real objectives when they voted for Trump—they just wanted some relief.

While the lies, calumnies and hyperbole being offered up against President Trump by the left are quite surreal and do tend to make America resemble a banana republic, I for one was not surprised by the level of duplicity and amorality in these pursuits. For eight years in this space, I chronicled the high crimes and misdemeanors of Barack Hussein Obama, from his counterfeit origin story and birth certificate, to his enabling of Islamist terrorists, to his weaponization of federal agencies, to his abandonment of diplomatic personnel in Libya to cover up said enabling of Islamist terrorists.

If Trump deserves impeachment, Obama deserved to be tried for treason and summarily convicted.

Obama’s crimes were legion, yet the biggest speed bump the Obama White House ever encountered was its attorney general, Eric Holder, being held in contempt of Congress during the Fast and Furious gunrunning scandal.

Some weeks ago, I wrote in this space about the proliferation of fake conservatives in media, some of whom had long been considered conservative stalwarts. These people, along with establishment Republicans in Congress, are the same ones who gave Obama a complete pass with regard to his crimes – and it wasn’t just because they were afraid of being called racists (although that did provide a handy pretext for their inaction).

These are also the same Republicans who have provided President Trump with lukewarm or grudging support for his policies, despite their being in the same party. They’re the same Republicans who blast Trump at every available opportunity, even though they repeatedly wind up with egg on the face over their inability to fathom his strategies.

Democratic congressional leaders are now even more desperate to push for Trump’s impeachment in light of his intent to pursue misfeasance in connection with former Vice President Joe Biden’s involvement in his son’s foreign business dealings while he was vice president. They know full well that pulling that thread could unravel everything from the high crimes of the Clinton administration to Democrats’ own collusion with foreign powers to influence our elections, and innumerable crimes in between.

They know that considering Trump’s tactical prowess, this could literally lead to the end of the Democratic Party, should Trump prove determined enough to pursue these to their logical conclusions.

Still, Democrats in Washington are torn. They’re torn between the imperative for removing Trump or losing their party, and the possibility of losing their party anyway.

They know – and we can’t forget – that it wasn’t only conservatives or only Republicans who got Trump elected. Registered Democrats voted for Trump too, and there are record numbers of Democrats, even among heretofore firmly ensconced groups such as blacks, who are leaving the party and declaring their support for Trump.

And it isn’t only an affinity for the president that’s spurring this movement. The toxic deportment of Democrats at the highest levels over the last several years speaks volumes, even to the most unsophisticated voter. Anyone who is paying attention at this juncture and who is not a committed leftist can see where the entrenched Washington establishment intends to take us, and they do not want to be along for the ride.

Article posted with permission from Erik Rush