Impeachment theater

(Regarding Adriana Cohen’s “Dems can’t stop pushing hoaxes,” Nov. 13). Those voters who rejected America’s lady-still-inwaiting and her politics of the Beltway swamp in 2016 are fortified when she and her acolytes in the House majority, along with the loud, proud and unbowed anti-Trump media chorus, continue to pummel the Electoral College victor. The losers began the battle to nullify the election as soon as it had been won, some, with the ability to manipulate deep-state levers and wanting insurance that the renegade would not possibly win, even during the campaign, apparently heedless of Donald Trump’s capacity to give no quarter or acknowledge his own wrongdoing.

Apology and analysis are not part of Mr. Trump’s shtick and his base voters remain largely untroubled by elite criticism. Those who chose him for president knew the man inside and out, knew that they were voting for a loose cannon and knew that they would be making excuses for his wayward tongue, tweets, tics and tirades. His supporters value authenticity far more than the Kabuki theater of impeachment with its rigged rules. The usually clever speaker of the House became too clever by half when she bowed to the impeachment wing of her caucus, especially when she deputized the glaringly partisan Rep. Adam Schiff to stage-manage the production. Political independents will judge the impeachment and subsequent Senate exoneration in the forum of ultimate responsibility, the forum Speaker Pelosi should have trusted, that of the 2020 election.

— Paul Bloustein, Cincinnati, Ohio