Impeachment effort seems destined to re-elect Trump

Does the Democrat leadership in Congress realize they are doing more to help re-elect Donald Trump than any Republican effort could do?

Point One: They have spent millions of taxpayer dollars (that's our money) for the past few weeks conducting hearings that have produced virtually no information that has not been widely discussed in the news media and well known by any American who is interested in knowing (and it's questionable how many actually are).

The money and time they have spent and are spending in an effort to remove him (with no guarantees yet) could have been avoided (and not spent) by waiting until next November when all eligible American voters will have an opportunity to send Donald Trump to a disgraceful trash heap (if that's what American voters want.)

Point Two: The Democrats' conduct in the hearings of the past few weeks has done little, if anything at all, to provide American voters with any level of confidence or optimism that they have any pro-American objective, other than removing Donald Trump from office.

Point Two and a half: Are the Democrat leaders in Congress so blind that they don't realize that Trump is (or was) perfectly capable of removing himself from office?

His arrogance, his bluster, his apparent inattention to detail (and facts) are obvious to most Americans, even many Republicans who may have voted for him. (Present company excluded.)

A qualified - qualified - and experienced Democratic candidate would have, or could have, a reasonable chance to defeat Trump in 2020 based largely on the discomfort that many Americans - and that includes many Republicans - have had with Trump and his act during the past three years.

There are many of us who did not think he should have been elected in the first place.

Now, thanks to the Democrat leadership, Trump looks better and better - especially at a time when the Democratic candidate field looks so weak, on the one hand, and so extreme (some of them) on the other hand that the impeachment effort only plays in to the hands of those who would argue that the Democrats have no one who can actually beat Trump in an open U.S. election so let's do what we can to (a) prevent that from happening by removing him; or (b) failing that, let's weaken him so seriously that American voters will reject him.

Democrats fail to realize that their highest priority should be to find a candidate who can earn the trust and confidence of the American voters and prove he or she can do a better job than Trump.

The never-ending series of Democrat debates has not accomplished that yet, and it does the Democrat candidate hopefuls no good to go after Trump. Donald Trump is perfectly capable of convincing American voters that they made a mistake in 2016 and they should not repeat it in 2020 - but the Democrats are erasing that argument.

The Democrats should let Trump's performance during his first three years speak for itself. They should not make him a martyr.

But Congressional Democrats are creating a potential scenario in which if Trump were impeached and Mike Pence moved into the Office of the President, he just might be able to be elected to a full term because of the hostility and disgust many American voters would have toward the Democrats for creating a yearlong impeachment circus.

The circus, actually, is already under way and if you think it is bad now, just imagine what 2020 will be like if the Democrats continue to act like clowns.

The only thing the Democrats have going for them is that Trump sometimes seems too out-of-touch to realize that he can be - and usually is - his own worst enemy. If he could tone it down and keep his hands off his computer keyboard, there likely would be no stopping him.

But give American voters credit for having enough intelligence to make their own decision. Many of them - of us - do have enough intelligence to do that

Ed Murnane, edmurnane@gmail.com, of Arlington Heights, is retired president of the Illinois Civil Justice League and a former staff member for presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.