They wanted someone or something to force their hand. They waited on the Mueller report. That wasn’t enough. They waited for Wednesday’s hearing. I doubt that will be enough.

They told us that there was such a thing as a “failed impeachment,” meaning that if the Senate was unlikely to convict and remove, an impeachment vote in the House was meaningless.

They told us that impeachment was too “divisive” and should not be undertaken unless the impetus was “overwhelming and bipartisan.”

People were told that opening an impeachment inquiry would be a mistake because that’s what Trump wants to energize his base — particularly a failure to convict in the Senate — and that it would virtually guarantee his re-election.

None of this washes with me. While Democrats worry about tearing the country apart, Trump is doing just that in real time. His base doesn’t need further energizing; they’re juiced up on sexism, xenophobia, racism and nationalism.

The truth is that the Democratic leadership has no intention whatsoever of opening an impeachment inquiry unless they are literally forced to do so. They know that Trump deserves to be impeached, but principle is being made to take a back seat to politics. They are scared of unsettling the people who voted for their newly elected moderates. They are scared that they might upset the white people who voted for Trump’s racism but might be open to considering a Democrat.

They think that there is a way to acquiesce their way into acceptance. They think that if Democrats are simply quiet and don’t make a fuss, that this fever will break and voters will be relieved of Trump’s corruption.