If you haven’t been living under a rock for the past couple months, you will have heard that Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic Speaker of the House, has launched an impeachment inquiry against President Trump on the basis of a nefarious call he made to the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky. Pelosi and House Democrats believe that Mr. Trump was looking to gather compromising information about former Vice President Joe Biden, the frontrunner of the Democratic 2020 presidential race. Trump has defended himself repeatedly, launching attacks at Pelosi and other leading Democrats for not agreeing to bills he has proposed, tweeting, “The Democrats are now to be known as the DO NOTHING PARTY!” 

Despite the excitement of many Democrats about the pending inquiry, if the Senate votes to not remove the president  (the most likely outcome considering that Republicans have a Senate majority) Trump will take to Twitter to brag about the so-called “witch hunt” that took place. He will denounce Nancy Pelosi and other leading Democrats as corrupt and many will believe him. He will advance himself as the outsider, draining the Democratic swamp. And most importantly, he will compel many undecided voters to vote for him in the 2020 election.

Of course, there’s the question about what will happen if Trump does get impeached. If the House of Representatives votes to impeach, the trial will be brought to the Senate, where a two-thirds majority vote must be achieved to result in impeachment and removal from office. Normally, the Vice President would become President and the line of succession would be updated from there. However, news of Pence’s involvement in the accused scheme with Ukraine has recently been uncovered, which could eventually result in a President Pelosi and a horde of angry conservatives in the House.

Let’s not get too ahead of ourselves, though. The chance that a Republican-controlled Senate would vote to remove in a public vote is unlikely, given that Republicans that vote to remove could have trouble being reelected, especially if Trump isn’t removed. This is why Trump will not get removed from office by the Senate and will use a failure from the Democrats to better his chances in the upcoming election. 

Pelosi and other high-ranking Democrats understand that there is a high risk to the impeachment inquiry. However, they believe that nobody is above the law and that asking a foreign power to investigate a political rival has to prompt an impeachment inquiry, drawing a much-needed line at where a President can tip-toe away from the law. 

When the Senate votes not to remove Trump from office, he’ll resume his bullying at the front steps of the Democrats of the House. He’ll display himself as the alpha, treated horribly and still able to persevere, prompting 2020 voters to believe he is the greater man in the situation. He will compel undecided voters to vote for him in the 2020 election, launching America into four more years of trickery and abuse of office. 

The impeachment could lead to a much worse situation for Democrats, leading me to ask myself the question:

Is it worth it?