The most essential branch of the U.S. government is collapsing before our eyes—right as it faces a historic showdown.
Sitting inside the House chamber that January afternoon, watching a procession of her Democratic colleagues reverse themselves and pave Pelosi’s way to the speakership, a sinking feeling came over Spanberger. This was not what she had signed up for. This was not how the most important legislative body on Earth was supposed to function. This was not the behavior she expected from people who talked about changing Congress but walked in compliance with the status quo. “You're supposed to be here, and you're supposed to advocating for people, and you're supposed to be fighting for things that you care about,” Spanberger says. “How do you just fall in line?”
Suddenly, as Democrats press onward with an impeachment process that will extinguish whatever glimmer of hope might have existed for productivity in the 116th Congress, Spanberger finds herself most reluctantly at center stage. On Monday, she joined with six like-minded freshman colleagues in penning a Washington Post op-ed calling for an impeachment inquiry—stunning the Democratic caucus and effectively forcing Pelosi’s hand.
How the impeachment proceedings affect an increasingly polarized nation is anyone’s guess. But it’s hard to imagine the coming showdown doing any more damage to an institution that, lawmakers in both parties will agree, was broken long before Donald Trump came to town.
Yes, it started with Moscow Mitch going rouge on the Constitution. Oh, wait, you were trying to deflect this to be anyone's fault other that the Republicans and Donald Trump, right? Sorry, the dog don't bark.
