Furthermore, when we speak today of those two presidents’ transgressions, it is not the articles of impeachment to which we refer. It is their actions. In the Nixon case, the break-in, the attempt to get the C.I.A. to block the F.B.I.’s investigation of the break-in, the broader cover-up, the Saturday Night Massacre. In the Clinton case, the particular infidelity and the lie about it to a grand jury.

So it will be with this president. His violations matter more than the specific degree to which the Democrats officially remonstrate with him for them.

It seems very likely, by the way, that we’re going to be seeing evidence of new offenses right up through Election Day. We can reasonably assume that he will accept illegal foreign help in the election, given that he told George Stephanopoulos he would do so. Are the Democrats supposed to wait until next October to make sure they don’t miss anything?

An extended process might produce more riveting testimony. But if a court separately orders the former White House counsel Don McGahn to testify — which it might do soon — he will have to, whether it’s officially part of an impeachment proceeding or not. Americans will watch his testimony and take it in.

There’s risk in the maximalist approach, too. A process that drags on for too long might just result in more Democratic infighting, at a time when the party needs to be unified behind its only real option for removing Mr. Trump — the 2020 election. There’s a decent argument for throwing the hot potato to Mitch McConnell and shaming him, and the Senate Republicans, for abasing themselves with a blanket exoneration of Mr. Trump.

And what will it all matter by next November? I may live to eat these words, but if events play out in the more-or-less expected fashion, I will bet you dollars to doughnuts that when we pore over the exit polls next Nov. 4, impeachment itself will have been a minor factor in people’s voting, let alone the question of how many articles the House passed.

The two Americas are dug in. Minds are made up. By next November, so much will have happened that impeachment will be a distant memory, as difficult to retrieve from the memory well for most people as what movie won the last Best Picture Oscar.