It’s time to stop talking about impeachment as a drama. This show has now become a farce.

Impeachment is a constitutional remedy the framers created to allow for the removal, between elections, of a president who abuses his power and cannot be left in charge. Democrats are trying to transform it into a way to express their hatred of President Trump and their conviction or pretended belief that his 2016 victory over Hillary Clinton was somehow illegitimate.

In recent days, they’ve stopped trying to keep up the lie that they’re sincere about demonstrating high crimes and misdemeanors. It's obvious this has become an unserious performance for the benefit of news media and the Democratic base.

For one thing, any show starring John Dean is obviously a comedy.

The House Judiciary Committee, which would conduct the first stages of the impeachment process, is scheduled to start its series of hearings on the Russia investigation on Monday. Dean, a disbarred lawyer and cover-up artist, is their star witness.

Dean was not merely a player in Watergate. He was, according to the FBI, the “master manipulator of the cover-up.” That’s why he was convicted of a felony and disbarred. Democrats love trotting Dean out in public, because as a former Republican he carries extra authority, or so we are supposed to believe. Dean also called for the impeachment of George W. Bush, while defending the most corrupt actions of Bill Clinton. His only role as a house-trained Democratic poodle is to sit up and beg for the impeachment of Republicans. If he’s the Democrats’ opening act, it doesn’t speak well of the glittering stars we're likely to see in the rest of their lineup.

Meanwhile, the legal minds behind the resistance are admitting that this is just a song and dance. Laurence Tribe, the constitutional scholar-turned-resistance tweeter, wrote an op-ed for the Washington Post in which he argued, as the headline puts it, “Impeach Trump. But don’t necessarily try him in the Senate.”

Tribe, while asserting without presenting any evidence that Trump “cheat[ed] his way into office,” says that if the House impeached him or passed a resolution calling him “impeachable,” it would brand the president with a “scarlet ‘I’ that Trump would have to take with him into his reelection campaign.”

Tribe was reduced to this argument because he knows there is no way, via impeachment, to remove Trump from office. Democrats simply want to bespatter Trump’s image with odium for the 2020 election. Their excuse is that the GOP is too partisan even to consider removing a Republican president. That argument would carry weight if the Democrats actually presented an impeachable act. The closest they have, however, are nonacts by Trump, such as his reported desire to fire Robert Mueller, which Trump denies.

Democrats point vaguely to Trump’s “conduct” and, tellingly and falsely, complain that he “cheat[ed]” to win 2016.

Where does all this leave House Speaker Nancy Pelosi?

She knows she can’t remove Trump via impeachment. She fears going through the song and dance will help Trump and hurt her majority. But she also knows that her base wants blood.

She’s trying to ride the tiger of a House majority with the primary goal of punishing the other side, particularly Trump, and somehow proving the 2016 election shouldn’t have counted.

So Pelosi stepped onto the stage last week to deliver her laugh line. She doesn’t want Trump impeached, she just wants to lock him up when he leaves office. She hopes this line can slake her party’s thirst for revenge.