Since the 2016 election, Democrats have set out to reverse the will of voters using any means necessary to discredit, destroy, and remove from office President Trump by impeachment. This illegitimate assault on the office of the president is not only unprecedented, but it’s a threat to our democracy.

Impeachment is a serious issue with real consequences, including economic harm, yet Democrats throw around the term as if it’s a campaign slogan. This behavior isn’t normal. Since the founding of our country, the House of Representatives has only impeached two presidents: Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton. Both were legitimate impeachments, not based on flimsy evidence like what's being used to attack Trump.

For Trump, the fix was already in on day one, and the strategy to impeach him was well underway even as he prepared for his transition to Washington. On January 20, 2017, the day of his inauguration, the Washington Post ran a story titled, “The campaign to impeach Trump has already begun.” As the article says, “The impeachment drive comes as Democrats and liberal activists are mounting broad opposition to stymie Trump’s agenda.”

Democrats see impeachment as a way to score political points and “stymie” Trump’s legislative attempts to help people, an agenda to create more jobs, fix healthcare, lower the cost of prescription drugs, cut taxes, provide money to rebuild our military, and secure our border.

Consider the following actions going back to the early days of the Trump presidency that exemplify Democrats’ self-interested efforts to smear the president.

Since May 2017, Rep. Al Green of Texas has introduced, on four separate occasions, articles of impeachment against the president.

In July 2017, Rep. Brad Sherman of California reintroduced an article of impeachment against Trump for “high crimes and misdemeanors,” citing the Russian probe. This was long before the dud that was Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report.

In November 2017, Rep. Steve Cohen of Tennessee introduced five articles of impeachment.

Last week, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced a formal impeachment inquiry of the president before she saw the all-important phone call transcript and before she saw the whistleblower complaint.

When it comes to Trump, Democrats are quick to talk about impeachment, but during Clinton’s impeachment, they sounded very different.

In 1998, Sen. Joe Biden said impeachment of Bill Clinton would overturn the will of the people:

“The president of the United States does not serve at the pleasure of the legislature, does not serve at the pleasure of Joe Biden, does not serve at the pleasure of Henry Hyde, does not serve at the pleasure of the Congress…He is elected directly by the people of the United States of America, and the election of a president is the only nationwide vote the American people will ever cast and that’s a big deal.”

In a 1998 speech on the House floor, Pelosi said that Republicans were “paralyzed” in their hatred of Clinton and that the country would “suffer” because of it.

“Today the Republican majority is not judging the president with fairness, but impeaching him with a vengeance…In the investigation of the president, fundamental principles which Americans hold dear – fairness, privacy, checks, and balances – have been seriously violated and why? Because we are here today because the Republicans in the House are paralyzed with hatred of President Clinton…Until the Republicans free themselves of that hatred, our country will suffer.”

Who's paralyzed, now?

In 1998, Rep. Jerry Nadler , now chair of the House Judiciary Committee, offered up some thoughts about the Republican’s push to impeach Clinton that have now come back to haunt him.

“This partisan coup d’état will go down in infamy in the history of our nation…This is clearly a partisan railroad job…There are clearly some members of the Republican majority who have never accepted the results of the 1992 and 1996 elections.”

Republicans could say the same quote now if you just switched in the correct party names and election year, except Nadler was wrong then, and Republicans are right now.

Democratic actions to impeach President Trump for illegitimate reasons based on flimsy evidence will further divide our country and defy the will of the people. Furthermore, but in the words of Rep. Maxine Waters back in 1998, it will “long be remembered and recorded in history as one of the most despicable actions ever taken by the Congress of the United States of America.”

When their impeachment drive fails at the ballot box, Democrats can't say Republicans didn't warn them.

Mark Vargas (@MarkAVargas) is a tech entrepreneur, political adviser and contributor to the Washington Examiner's Beltway Confidential blog. From 2007-10, he served as a civilian in the Office of the Secretary of Defense.