Donald Trump has yet to be inaugurated, but talk of impeachment has been in the air since the day after the election. It’s been promoted by an array of influential commentators, both progressive and conservative—from filmmaker Michael Moore on the left to New York Times columnist David Brooks on the right.
Even American University political historian Allan Lichtman, who defied the polls and confidently predicted that Trump would triumph on Nov. 8, has gotten in on the act, forecasting that Trump won’t finish his first term in the Oval Office.
As much as I’d like to agree with Moore, Brooks and Lichtman—the names, after all, have the collective ring of an authoritative blue-chip law firm—I have to demur. Talk of impeachment is premature, born of the proverbial first stage of grief—denial—over the improbable election of a narcissistic, ill-prepared neofascist as our 45th head of state.