Former special counsel Robert Mueller’s seven hours of testimony before Congress on July 24 have sparked renewed calls for the impeachment of President Donald Trump. As Democrats consider their next step, there’s a great deal to consider, both practically and ideologically, about initiating an impeachment inquiry. While impeachment may not succeed in unseating Trump, it could give Democrats a powerful force to unify the party’s disparate factions.

The most powerful case against impeachment is obvious: It simply won’t happen because of split partisan control of Congress and the way the process works. As outlined in the U.S. Constitution, impeachment starts in the House of Representatives, which Democrats won control of in the 2018 midterm elections.

After articles of impeachment are introduced by a member of Congress, petition, or committee, an impeachment inquiry typically starts with the House Judiciary Committee, which investigates and debates before voting on whether or not to advance the inquiry to the House floor. Currently, there are 24 Democrats and 17 Republicans serving on that committee, so a simple party-line vote could advance an inquiry, but three Democrats could vote against advancement and it would still pass by a majority.

Then it would go to the entire 435-member House, where there are 235 Dems currently serving. Again, a simple majority is needed, so a party-line vote (or even one with some Democratic defection) would be enough.

From there, though, the process to impeach Trump would hit a roadblock. While the House votes to officially bring impeachment (which is only the name for the hearings, not actually unseating a president), the Senate is responsible for trying the president and voting to convict. Two-thirds of Senators (67) need to vote yes, which presents an issue.

Currently, Republicans control the Senate with 53 seats; Democrats have 45 seats plus two Independents who caucus with them. That means that even if every single Senate Democrat and Independent supported a conviction, actually convicting Trump would require at least 20 Republicans to vote out a sitting president from their own party. It’s all enough to make this idea Mission Impeachable.

Democratic leaders are aware that the math is not in their favor in the Senate. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who has previously said impeachment would be too “divisive” to pursue, reiterated on Wednesday the necessity for an extremely compelling case to pursue impeachment.

"We want to have the strongest possible case to make a decision as to what path we will go down," Pelsoi said. "The stronger our case is, the worse the Senate will look for just letting the President off the hook."

Whether or not Pelosi thinks the case against Trump is currently strong, the calls for impeachment certainly have been. Since 2017, representatives like Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) and Al Green (D-TX.) have been pushing for action on the issue. High-profile senators and 2020 candidates have also joined the call as it’s gained steam.

After Democrats took the House in the midterms, the progressive first-term congresswomen of “The Squad” brought new visibility to those calls for impeachment. Representative Rashida Tlaib (D-MI.) memorably said “We’re going to impeach the motherf*cker” on the day she was sworn in; since then, squad mates and representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Ilhan Omar (D-MN.), and Ayanna Pressley (D-MA.) have joined this push.

So where does that leave a party without a practical path to actually unseating this president? What value, if any, is there in a House impeachment inquiry if it has no real prospect of passing in the Senate?