Representative Adam Schiff, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, takes his seat at a House Intelligence Committee hearing as part of the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump, Nov. 13, 2019. (Joshua Roberts/Reuters)

Public opinion seems to be shifting against the Trump haters.

Having demanded Donald J. Trump’s impeachment ever since Election Night 2016, Democrats are on the verge of getting what they want.

They’ll be sorry.

The Democrats’ “bombshell” hearings fizzled like wet firecrackers. Hypnotic witnesses expressed policy and stylistic differences with President Trump but failed to tie him to any impeachable offense.


RealClearPolitics’ November 10 multiple-poll average — two days before Adam “Torquemada” Schiff’s hearings began — showed that 51 percent of Americans supported impeachment and 42 percent objected.

After two weeks of testimony and cross-examination, momentum shifted.


Thursday’s RCP average clocked impeachment at a non-majority 49 percent support, while opposition grew to 44 percent. Thirst for impeachment had shrunk from a 9 percent margin to 5 percent.

Black Americans — since the 1960s, the Democrats’ most loyal voters — are fleeing impeachment as they would a hotel fire. According to Emerson College’s October 22 poll, black impeachment support stood at 58 percent. Emerson’s November 21 survey measured just 37 percent of blacks supporting impeachment. Simultaneously, black opposition soared from 27 percent to 38 percent.

The sound you hear is Democrats biting their nails.

Nonetheless, House Judiciary Committee chairman Jerrold Nadler (D., N.Y.) will conduct a hearing Wednesday on “the historical and constitutional basis of impeachment, as well as the Framers’ intent and understanding of terms like ‘high crimes and misdemeanors.’ ”


Professor Nadler’s academic symposium should be as electrifying as a planned blackout.

The impeachment timetable will let Democratic Grinches steal Christmas, while Americans sing, “You’re a mean one, Mr. Schiff.” Wednesday’s hearing will occur well into the most wonderful time of the year, as stores brim with shoppers, eggnog flows, and office parties rage.

The House Judiciary Committee presumably would write articles of impeachment in mid-December, as Americans decorate Christmas trees, savor The Nutcracker Suite, and sing carols at joyous gatherings. The House then would conduct a loud, abrasive impeachment debate, as every TV news program, call-in radio show, editorial page, and current-affairs website echoed the pros, cons, objections, and rebuttals surrounding this fiasco — just as college students fly home for family reunions, U.S. GIs leave their bases to hug loved ones, and Americans invest in beer, wine, champagne, and other adult beverages for Christmas festivities across this cornucopian republic.


House leaders reportedly want a final impeachment vote on December 20 — two days before Hanukkah and four days before Christmas Eve. So, as Americans celebrate peace, love, and understanding, divisive Democrats would deliver bitterness, the nullification of 63 million votes, and the reversal of 2016’s presidential election — because the sorest losers since the Stone Age hate Trump’s guts for crushing Hillary.


If the House impeaches Trump, the Democrats’ dreadful timing would continue. If they want a Senate trial, Mitch McConnell will give it to them, good and hard.

The majority leader likely would schedule proceedings so that senators — including Michael Bennett of Colorado, Cory Booker of New Jersey, Kamala Harris of California, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, Bernie Sanders of Vermont, and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts — would endure a multi-week trial amid elections in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, and South Carolina.

“A number of Democratic senators are running for president,” McConnell told RealClearPolitics. “I’m sure they’re gonna be excited to be here in their chairs, not being able to say anything during the pendency of this trial.”

Meanwhile, former vice president Joe Biden could be called to testify, along with his son, Hunter. Not good for Sleepy Joe, as primary voters make their decisions. Republicans are salivating over the chance to grill Trump haters about possible wrongdoing. These could include The Whistleblower, suspected Whistleblower collaborator Adam Schiff, anti-Trump Fusion GPS–dossier funder Hillary Clinton, dirty-dossier author Christopher Steele; Trump-loathing FBI officials James Comey, Peter Strzok, and Lisa Page; and Democratic operative Alexandra Chalupa (who, Politico reported, literally walked into Ukraine’s Washington, D.C., embassy in March 2016 and recruited them to help her mine dirt on candidate Trump).


Since Senate Republicans most assuredly would block Trump’s conviction, Americans — already tiring of impeachment — would be exhausted, frustrated, and enraged at Democrats for frittering away their hard-fought House majority on this ultimately futile exercise. Come November 2020, nauseated voters might trigger a Republican trifecta: Trump’s reelection, a renewed Senate majority, and a takeover of the House, as the GOP captures most or all of the 31 congressional districts that candidate Trump secured in 2016 but Democrats snatched in 2018. Democrats then would confirm their maturity and relevance by screaming outdoors until their vocal cords snapped.

Democrats are about to turn the No. 1 item on their gift list into a stocking full of smoldering, carbon-footprint-stomping, Pennsylvania-losing coal.

Bucknell University’s Michael Malarkey contributed research to this opinion piece.