House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., responds to reporters as Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., calls a meeting with all the House Democrats, many wanting impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump after his latest defiance of Congress by blocking his former White House lawyer from testifying yesterday, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, May 22, 2019. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

There is a prevailing belief that it is on the Republicans to be bipartisan in virtually everything; that it’s on them to reach across the aisle and make overtures in good faith. Such a belief is all well and good, but is completely devoid of any sincerity, given how very rarely it goes the other way.

The Democrats are very upset that Republicans won’t join them in the impeachment proceedings. Mitch McConnell saying that he’d be fine going straight to a vote with no trial caused a lot of heartburn among Democrats and the so-called Republicans who nonetheless find themselves opposite of Trump on every issue.

All of the outrage comes as the Democrats have rolled out articles of impeachment without a single Republican backer. Not one iota of Republican support. The natural cry of the Democrats and talking heads in the media is that the Republicans are all-in for Trump, choosing party over country time and again. Except, of course, that we know not every Republican is like that.

You have 21 Republicans who are leaving Congress in 2020, in no small part because they dislike Trump and how difficult he has made their lives. They are not the type of Republicans you’d consider to be “party over country” (or, really, “Trump over country”).  Nor are the myriad Trump-skeptical conservatives who still exist in the country who believe that Trump is not the ideal vessel for the movement’s message.

However, Adam Schiff and Jerry Nadler did nothing to encourage those Republicans to come to their side. They did not even try. We know they didn’t try because not one of those Republicans has come forward to question Trump’s motives in the Ukraine call and subsequent aid hold-up. They have been quiet.

Likewise, there is a small but vocal number of Republicans in the Senate who are also not fans of Trump and aren’t afraid to say when they disagree with him. Senators like Ben Sasse, Susan Collins, and others who most Trump fanatics like to curse and swear at daily. There has been no effort by Senate Democrats to woo them over, either.

Impeachment is an overtly political maneuver. It always has been and always will be. It amounts to “We don’t like you and we want you gone.” The Democrats of the modern era have made it no secret that they’ve been trying to get rid of Trump since 2016. They will continue after the 2020 election when Trump (inevitably, at this rate) wins. So, as it is a political maneuver, why haven’t they played politics and worked to bring people into a bipartisan coalition to solidify their claims against Trump?

The answer is very simple: This is a ploy to energize the voting base. Nothing more. If they didn’t know they couldn’t get it done when they started, then they might be the dumbest group of people in Washington D.C. But, they knew and they didn’t care. They are looking to keep the headlines negative, keep the base rallied, and pray that there is something they can dig up that will hurt Trump ahead of 2020.

So far, though, they’ve been absolute failures at all of it.