Have Yourself a Merry Little Impeachment

By Maria Behan — SPOTLIGHT

By the time you read this, Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives will likely have voted to impeach President Donald Trump. Congress will be getting ready to adjourn for the holidays (it’s good that Republicans love coal so much, since Santa will be leaving tons in their stockings). And the New Year will likely open with a trial in the Republican-dominated Senate that will let Trump off the hook.

More “Ho hum” than “Ho, ho, ho,” right?

In some ways, things do feel grim and predictable, but there are some bubbles of hope this holiday season. Some of them rise from how jaw-droppingly widespread (and inept) Trump’s criminal enterprise is. The man is so corrupt and sloppy; he’s got to get caught for something, right? Scores of lawsuits, criminal cases, subpoenas, and Freedom-of-Information-Act requests are pending against Trump, his family, and his administration. Any one of them has the potential of exposing evidence that’s damning enough to send Trump to hell or the Moscow penthouse he so richly deserves. Congress’s impeachment inquiry isn’t the only game in town.

But on the eve of the House vote to hold Trump accountable for just some of his myriad abuses of power, the thing that gives me the greatest hope is the swelling tide of resistance. Under the auspices of…