I’ve always known our liberal friends were insane, but I never knew their destructive nature reached so far as to target themselves too. I’d always considered them more of the recruiter than the suicide bomber – you know, the guy who convinces someone else to strap an explosive vest to themselves and walk into a market without it ever occurring to the poor sucker to ask, “If this is the key to an eternity in paradise, why haven’t you done it? Don’t you want 72 virgins?”

But this week showed me differently. Perhaps begrudgingly (dragged by radicals and fear their base won’t show up next November without it), perhaps willingly, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi tried to have her cake and eat it too.

The House voted to impeach President Donald Trump on two counts, both made up.

The first, abuse of power, isn’t a crime so much as it’s a tactic. People are generally said to have abused their power in the commission of a crime. But in this case, there is no crime. Leftists are trying to claim suggesting Joe Biden might have some smudges on his hands in Ukraine that led to his unreliable, untalented, unfaithful, stripper-loving, drug-using son being showered with case is somehow “seeking foreign assistance in the election,” but that’s ridiculous.

There is ample reason to think the former vice president used his position to help his son, or at least enough to warrant a serious investigation. Anyone who can accurately be described with the above superlatives, coupled with no experience in oil and gas, no ability to speak the language, and quite probably never having spent any serious time in Ukraine (has Hunter ever even been there?), pulling in more than the average American’s salary every month for a job that required next to nothing in return should raise red flags.

But the extent of the “investigations” of it to this point consisted mainly of reporters asking people involved if they’ve committed felonies. Would you trust Barry Bonds to give you his honest opinion about whether or not Mark McGuire cheated at baseball? Or might you think they all have something to hide?

Of course, this hasn’t stopped Democrats in the media from repeating Biden’s denials as fact. OJ insists he’s innocent too, the only difference is no one takes him at his word because of the evidence.

The left has taken to simply declaring things facts, whether they are or not. “Donald Trump broke the law, no one disputes this,” is a common refrain on cable news. It goes unchallenged because the interviewer and the interviewee are on the same team, so the “no one disputes this” part becomes self-perpetuating. It’s amazing how loud the echo chamber can be when your world consists of cable news green rooms, staff members you pay, and people who give you money to keep you in power. It’s so loud it can make you think there are no other voices.

The second charge, obstruction of Congress, is simply made up. The president exerted privilege and Democrats chose not to challenge it, as has happened every other time a president did the same thing. Exerting rights is not obstruction. The left’s response is impatience.

So now that the House has voted, Democrats are leaving everyone hanging by not finishing the impeachment process by delivering the articles to the Senate for trial. Democrats want Trump removed, but they know they don’t have a case. Dismissal of the case, or worse for them, an acquittal, will further expose the buckles on their vests. So they’re trying to stall, making absurd demands on the Senate to commit to a process they refused to do. But the Senate doesn’t take any more kindly to the House telling them what to do than the House would take it from the Senate. Members of each chamber are very territorial, and rightly so.

And that’s how we find ourselves here: one party insisting the president is such an “existential threat to the very existence of our democracy” that they had to vote to impeach quickly…before taking a 2 week vacation and refusing to complete the task.

As I said within an hour of Pelosi’s announcement that she wasn’t sending the articles to the Senate, “The impeachment process does not end until the House sends the articles to the Senate for a trial. Technically, the President is not impeached, the House just passed articles of impeachment. They have to take the final step. Unless this is all political BS.” (I even did a whole podcast on the subject that night). It has since been parroted by people with much bigger megaphones than I have, and much more impressive degrees and jobs. Many of whom are liberals.

If even I can see this, and see it first, how did the Democrats miss it? Rage does blind, but so does fear, both of which seem to be fueling the Democratic Party exclusively these days. Half their party is angry: angry at the president, angry at his voters, angry that they don’t get their way, angry when they do get their way and if fails, they’re just pissed off in general that the people might reelected Donald Trump. The other half is scared to death: scared the angry mob they created to go after Republicans and other heretics might turn on them, scared they’ll say something to set it off, scared the public at large will listen to their candidates during the primary season and realize just how far left the Democratic Party has gone.

This combination of anger and fear are the ingredients of stupid. The Democratic Party has become crippled by both, paralyzed trying to fend off all the things they’ve created. So far, this paralysis has been a good thing. Democrats haven’t been able to get much of anything else done, which means they haven’t been able to screw anything else up. But it’s not for lack of trying.

As the panic sets in deeper, and more polls roll in over the Christmas recess, it’s important to remember that Democrats won’t do the sane thing, no matter how bad it gets for them, and fold. They’ve been impatiently wanting to push all their chips into the center of the table since before the Mueller investigation was announced. They thought they had pocket aces when the phony whistleblower approached Adam Schiff with the second-hand tall tale of the Ukraine phone call, so they went all in. They’re pot-committed now, holding an eight and a deuce, off-suit, with nothing left to lose. If you thought they were crazy before, you ain’t seen nothing yet. It may seem like we’re approaching the end of this left-wing craziness, but the era of stupid has just begun.

Derek is the host of a free daily podcast (subscribe!), host of a daily radio show on WCBM in Maryland, and author of the book, Outrage, INC., which exposes how liberals use fear and hatred to manipulate the masses. Follow him on Twitter at @DerekAHunter.