In 1998, when Republicans in the House impeached Bill Clinton, Democrats railed against the impeachment. They claimed Republicans needed bipartisan support. They claimed the public was split. They were joined by a chorus of media outlets, including the New York Times, rejecting impeachment as a partisan affair dividing the country.

Republicans said it was necessary to protect democracy and the rule of law. Republicans said it was the right thing to do. Republicans said the President had obstructed justice and committed high crimes and misdemeanors. Republicans said what mattered was doing what’s right, not what the polling, public, or partisans said.

The roles are now exactly reversed. That suggests not only did the GOP get the Clinton impeachment wrong, but that the Democrats are getting this impeachment wrong.

There are plenty of Republicans willing to say the President did not conduct himself well on the phone call with Ukraine’s President. But they do not think it amounts to anything more than the known behavior of Donald Trump prior to voters putting him into office. There is nothing now rising to a high crime under the constitution.

Democrats, were the shoe on the other foot, would undoubtedly take the same position. Just as they now excuse much of the FBI’s conduct in 2016 against President Trump, they excused the IRS’s partisan operations during the Obama era; they excused the Attorney General in the Operation Fast and Furious matter; and they excused the Obama Administration bragging about lying to sell the Iran deal.

There are legitimate criticisms of the President’s behavior and his phone call to President Zelinsky. But the Democrats’ case for impeachment amounts to “scream louder.” They have wanted to rid the White House of Donald Trump since the night the New York Times’ election prediction needle swung in his favor. First they blamed James Comey. Then they blamed the Russians. Even now, Democrats are insistent the President coordinated with the Russians in 2016 to steal the election despite not a bit of evidence that a single voter switched their vote due to Russian interference.

Now, Democrats and the very pundits who have been righteously indignant about President Trump’s election since he got elected are engaged in a campaign of shame, yelling that anyone who stands with the President stands with a host of sins from racism to homophobia to misogyny to tyranny. Their screams are falling on deaf ears. The people who want the President gone are the same people who never wanted him to begin with. To the extent polling shows a plurality in favor of impeachment, a plurality favored Hillary Clinton too.

Remarkably, in the polling average, 47.2% favor removing the President from office, which is 1% less than Hillary Clinton’s percentage of the vote in 2016. That’s a strong indication that no minds have been changed despite the decibel increase in outrage. Crying wolf for four years has gotten the Democrats nothing more than apathy from the public and reduction of their majority as at least one Democrat bolts to the GOP over impeachment. That suggests this should be a matter for the voters in 2020, not the Congress now.