After years of digging for anything they could find to pin to President Trump, Democrats have finally settled on Ukrainegate as the vehicle to start moving to impeach the President. House Speaker Pelosi has announced that House Democrats will begin an impeachment inquiry into the President’s actions. What will come of it is anyone’s guess.
Even if the House were to impeach the President, it would be dead on arrival in the Senate, which with its Republican majority won’t move towards a trial. But Democrats will most likely still push for an impeachment vote, timing things to make the most impact for the 2020 Presidential election. The irony is that in their politicization of impeachment and use of it as an election tool, they’ll be impeaching President Trump for politicizing policy in an attempt to influence elections. Only in Washington does that hypocrisy go unnoticed and unchecked.
Stock markets and investors are understandably worried about impeachment, as President Trump has been a great boon to the economy. Notwithstanding the effects of the trade war with China, President Trump has overseen a stock market that has done incredibly well. All the Democratic prognosticators who warned of a stock market crash in the aftermath of a Trump victory were proven wrong. And now investors are fearful of a Democratic victory in 2020 because of what it would mean for the economy and for stock markets.
While stock markets are already teetering on the brink of a crash, a Democratic victory would certainly be the death knell for stocks. With frontrunners such as Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren running on platforms of soaking the rich, expanding Medicare, and increasing the size and scope of government, markets know that a Democratic victory would be bad for the economy. Taxes would rise, government spending would increase, and there’s no telling what kind of socialist policies would be implemented.
The big question, though, is whether that will be enough to motivate voters to get out to the polls in 2020. Democrats are motivated by their hatred of Trump, but are Republicans motivated to get out and vote defensively? Or have many of them become embarrassed of Trump, his moves for greater gun control, and his seeming inability to keep himself out of Democrats’ crosshairs? Unless voters turn out next year to put President Trump back in office, there’s no doubt that the future of the economy and indeed of the nation will be in grave danger.