Here’s a news flash for the leftwing politicians, pundits, and unbalanced billionaires who continue to push for the impeachment of President Trump: There is a large group of people living beyond the Beltway, collectively known as “the voters,” which doesn’t share your obsession with removing him from office. Countless polls confirm that the percentage of the electorate that supports impeachment is steadily dwindling. The vast majority of the people who will cast ballots in 2020 want you to stop indulging your nostalgia for Watergate and do something useful. The following passage from the latest Quinnipiac survey explains why:

The nation’s economy is “excellent,” 22 percent of American voters say in a Quinnipiac University National Poll today.… Another 49 percent of voters say the economy is “good.” The total 71 percent for “excellent” and “good” is the highest total number for American voter attitudes on the economy in almost 18 years. Some 52 percent of American voters say they are better off financially today than they were in 2016.

This echoes a number of other major polls. Gallup, for example, recently reported the following:

Americans’ optimism about their personal finances has climbed to levels not seen in more than 16 years, with 69% now saying they expect to be financially better off “at this time next year”… only two percentage points below the all-time high of 71%, recorded in March 1998 at a time when the nation’s economic boom was producing strong economic growth combined with the lowest inflation and unemployment rates in decades.

And, despite the comical claims of certain Democratic presidential candidates, it is not a coincidence that this is happening on President Trump’s watch. His predecessor advocated government meddling in the economy at all levels, ever increasing taxes, and endless red tape on business enterprises large and small. This produced a hopelessly anemic economy. Trump’s unapologetic advocacy of capitalism, tax cuts for individuals and businesses, and aggressive deregulation has produced measurable improvements in the lives of real people. Moreover, they know why it is happening now rather than five years ago.

Yet the voters are being told that, despite his exoneration by the Mueller investigation, the President must be removed from office. An internet search on “impeachment” will produce countless stories under headlines like, “Trump battles with Democrats as impeachment pressure grows.” Where is this “pressure” coming from? Not from the voters, according to the major polls conducted since the end of March, including one survey that shows a paltry 17 percent support for impeachment. This is deeply confusing to compulsive Trump-haters. Jennifer Rubin, for example, scratches her head and asks, “Why don’t Americans want to impeach Trump?

Americans’ heightened aversion to impeachment — 29 percent favor impeachment in the latest Quinnipiac poll, while 66 percent do not — seems unrelated to a belief in President Trump’s innocence or approval of his performance.… So why the reluctance to impeach? There is no definitive answer to the question, but perhaps Trump critics fear Congress won’t be able to do other things if it is enmeshed in impeachment.

Rubin might be onto something there, eh? Can you name a single useful accomplishment that can be attributed to the Democrats since they regained the majority in the House of Representatives? As Roll Call points out, “House Democrats are forming a nonbinding habit. For four legislative weeks in a row, the new majority has held votes on resolutions that do not carry the force of law and are designed simply to send a message.” They had the opportunity to work with the President on immigration, and a variety of other issues, but have instead opted to become the party of obstruction, investigations, and… well… impeachment.

And Trump has tried to work with these people. On Wednesday, he attempted to talk with Pelosi and Schumer about infrastructure and naturally they were as intransigent as ever. Indeed, while waiting for the President, Pelosi gratuitously stated: “We believe that the President of the United States is engaged in a cover-up.” These are obviously not the opening remarks of a woman who has any intention of negotiating anything in good faith. Upon learning of Pelosi’s comment, the President walked out of the meeting and announced in a Rose Garden “press gaggle” that it wasn’t possible to work with them until they finish the phony investigations:

I came here to do a meeting on infrastructure with Democrats, not really thinking they wanted to do infrastructure or anything else, other than investigate.… And instead of walking in happily into a meeting, I walk in to look at people that had just said that I was doing a cover-up.… You can go down the investigation track, and you can go down the investment track, or the track of “Let’s get things done for the American people.”

Predictably, Pelosi came out of the meeting and lied about what happened, behaving as if she had no idea why the President walked out of the meeting and claiming it was all “very, very, very strange.” But it’s pretty obvious that Pelosi and the Democrats are not going down the “get things done for the American people” track. She’s been battling with a radical cadre within her own “leadership team” who want to begin impeachment inquiries. It’s increasingly clear that she’s afraid she won’t remain Speaker if she doesn’t acquiesce. Yet she knows that route will be suicidal, and she isn’t alone. Democrat consultant Douglas Schoen puts it thus:

It would be a profound mistake for Democrats to be goaded into pursuing impeachment of President Trump… to hold impeachment hearings for President Trump plays right into the president’s hand, by giving credence to his assertion that the Democrats are a party of division, polarization and investigations.… Getting distracted by impeachment will only impede our chances of developing a narrative that can defeat President Trump in 2020.

And they badly need a new narrative. Regardless of what they are hearing from politicians in safe seats, pundits who want a juicy story, and billionaires with more money than sense — impeachment is a loser for the Democrats. If they continue to obsessively attack the President they will wreck their party just as Ahab destroyed the Pequod, and Trump will survive relatively unscathed. So, if the Democrats want to lose the 2020 presidential race as well as yet another short-lived House majority, they should keep ignoring the will of the voters.