In May of 2017, shortly after Donald Trump fired FBI Director James Comey and spilled top-secret information to the Russians, I took to this space to chide his party for its silence in this monstrosity of a presidency and to demand action. "Impeach him now," I wrote.
By January of this year, my ardor for that remedy had cooled somewhat. I wrote that while Trump surely deserves impeachment, the politics of the moment would make that futile, as Senate Republicans are unlikely to vote for his removal. Besides, I noted, the process would "fracture an already fractured union" while failing to address the core sickness that made Trump's presidency possible.